Mark Eitzel, one of the great secrets of the American songwriter

If there was a category or a playlist “the best guarded secrets of American music”, Mark Eitzel would be right among the first artists. It is likely that you have not heard of him, nor of the American Music Club: a minor career in independent rock between the 80s and 90s, a reunion in the zero years. Also as a soloist he was a bit discontinuous: his latest album is from 2017, eight years ago.
But he has returned: next week he will be on tour in Italy with three concerts: on April 7 at the Dorado in Turin, 8 at the beauty of Milan, 9 at the ARCO Progresso di Firenze: an opportunity for (re) discover it,

The American Music Clubs

Eitzel founded the AMCs in San Francisco in 1983, with the guitarist Vudi, the bassist Dan Pearson, the percussionist Matt Norelli and the keyboardist Brad Johnson. It is with the second album, “California” of 1988, that the AMC begin to gain a sequel to worship, especially in Europe: they come to sign with a 1993 “Mercury” Major, but they never leave the shade. Indeed, the early 90s are the era of rock that returns to the standings, driven by the grunge phenomenon, but the band fails the mainstream jump: the songs are intimate, between slowcore and post rock, with a unique writing, between poetry, cynicism and small tragedies told with irony, but too far from the one that works on the radio and on MTV. The voice, of Eitzel then: unique, whispering, but also by Rocker when needed – still far from the muscle tones of the frontman of that period.
The band melts in ’94: he will reform in the mid -2000s, but that adventure will also last only a couple of albums. Those who knew the American Music Club, however, loved them madly.

A solo career between high (few) and low (many).

Eitzel’s solo route began already in 1991 with “Songs of Love Live”, a live recording, voice and guitar of the AMC songs – something similar to the one that we will probably see on this tour. The real solo debut in the studio arrives in 1996 with “60 Watt Silver Lining”, where he moves to a more crooner dimension.
In 1997 he tried the big leap again: “West” comes out for Warner and is the result of a collaboration with Peter Buck dei Rem, who at that time are at the height of success. There remains another cult album, and little more.

From here on, a series of albums that explore several musical directions, often even a little getting lost, including “The Invisible Man” (2001) and “Music for Courage & Confident” (2002), the latter composed of cover. After the reunion of the American Music Club between 2004 and 2008, he returns to be a soloist, but his path is lost for newly road, with minor records, due to several health problems.
His latest album, “Hey Mr Ferryman” of 2017, is perhaps his best solo work: produced by Bernard Butler (ex-Suede), he has his own trademark: confidential voice, powerful, on songs written almost always on acoustic guitar, but which Butler wears perfectly, with complex but never intrusive arrangements.

An English magazine calls him Leonard Cohen’s heir – Exaggeating but not too much: the hot tone, the writing of a disarming humanity. If only he had had some more recognition, maybe even his career would have been more continuous – or vice versa, reversing the order of the factors.

In Italy we will see him again in an acoustic version: a voice and a guitar and a handful of great songs, among the best you have never heard.