BIO:
Marc Douglas Berardo is the kind of hard working, fast moving, adventure seeking, keen observer who lives for the story and the song. In what amounts to song length works of fiction, Berardo’s sharply drawn portraits cast a net on unusual and beguiling characters and places. With a painter’s eye for detail, and music firmly rooted in the great American sound, Berardo sings about circus retirees, expatriates in Florida rum bars, union iron workers, old poets, aimless New York City debutantes, near death car crashes, hard nosed fishermen and of course, the changes that experience brings to everyone. He does this “simply and well” with what Rambles Cultural Magazine calls: “careful images and great tunes.”
Marc Douglas Berardo's new CD entitled: DOWNHAULER (his 5th) will be released by the Horizon Music Group in the Spring of 2011. Marc says: “All of the lyrics on Downhauler are, in some way, about searching for home, the possibility of renewal and the promise of adventure. I began to write this particular set of tunes over a few days while staying in the Castillo Real Hotel in St Augustine, Florida. The Spanish influence of the old town and the hotel got me thinking about exotic locations like Cuba and Bimini. I started looking at maps and picking other places to go. I definitely had some travel fever. The characters I was writing about are all at some kind of crossroads or transition (Ruby, Smokegun Jack Daydreams, Something Real, Havana). They are contemplating about making a life somewhere else, lighting out for new places and rectifying where home was for them (Time to Go, Everything Will Be Alright). I made up a few more numbers up about some of the people that I have gotten to know in and around my own home base of Westerly, RI (Bottom of the Bottle, Passing Through, Lonely Town). After a while, they felt like they belonged together on a record. They felt connected.
This new collection of songs continues Marc’s collaboration with long time producer Prof. Dick Neal (Hoe, The Mockingbirds). The CD features performances from among others: Nashville multi instrumentalist Liam Bailey (Bill Frisell, Rodney Atkins), the signature harmonies of Brother Chris Berardo (Chris Berardo and The DesBerardos), Violinist Larry Deming (Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, James Taylor) and Americana Music sensations RED MOLLY on the soulful ballad “Quiet Places.” Several of the songs on Downhauler have already been recognized in some of the biggest songwriting contest in the nation including The Telluride Troubadour Contest (CO), The Sister’s Folk Festival (OR) and The Rocky Mountain Folk Fest (CO).
Based in the port town of Westerly, Rhode Island, Marc performs his made up songs on an average of 150 nights a year everywhere from bars and house concerts to theaters and national festivals. Places such as the legendary Town Crier Café in New York, The Bluebird Café in Tennessee to the world famous Trade Winds Cantina in North Florida and even St Anne's Chapel in Vatican City, Italy. Along the way he has shared the stage with a variety of the best in acoustic, folk and rock music including: Livingston Taylor, John Haitt, Cliff Eberhardt, Peter Rowan, Guy Clark, Vassar Clements, Ralph Stanley, blues legend Chris Smither, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members The Buffalo Springfield, Brooks Williams, Norman Blake (Oh Brother Soundtrack), NRBQ, Steve Forbert, Mustard's Retreat, Eric Anderson, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, Ruthie Foster, Red Molly, Garnet Rogers, Greg Trooper, Kate Taylor, The Pousette-Dart Band, Amy Speace, Cheryl Wheeler and The Kennedy's among others. As a sometime member of The DesBerardo Band with his brother Chris, Marc has been a part of shows with classic rock acts including Little Feat, The Marshall Tucker Band, Levon Helm, The Doobie Brothers, David Allen Coe and others.
When not playing his songs all over the place, Marc Douglas Berardo lives in a heavily secluded and fortified compound on a river near the ocean in Westerly, RI.
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