Mark McGuinn (born August 19, 1968) is an American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

artist. He made his debut in 2001 with the single " Mrs. Steven Rudy", a Top 10 hit on the U.S. ''Billboard''

Hot Country Singles & Tracks Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...

charts. It was the first of three singles from his first album ''Mark McGuinn'', which was released in 2001 on the independent VFR Records label. The label was closed in 2002, and McGuinn did not a record another album until ''One Man's Crazy'' in 2006, released on Blue Flamingo Records. He has not recorded an album since then.

Biography

McGuinn was born in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the List of municipalitie ...

. His musical background includes playing trumpet in a jazz band. McGuinn later aspired to become a professional soccer player. After a knee injury, he decided to move to

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, in 1994 to become a songwriter instead.

Musical career

By 2001, McGuinn was signed to VFR Records, a newly formed independent record label, which released his first album, ''Mark McGuinn'', in May that year. Initially, the label had planned to release "That's a Plan" as the album's first single. After a disc jockey at

KPLX KPLX (99.5 FM, "99.5 The Wolf") is a commercial radio station broadcasting a gold-based country radio format. It is licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, and serves the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. KPLX is owned by Cumulus Media, with studios and ...

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, Texas, began playing "Mrs. Steven Rudy", another track from the album, other nearby stations soon followed suit. Due to the reaction the song was receiving in this market, the label released it as McGuinn's first single, with "That's a Plan" on the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

. Upon the release of "Mrs. Steven Rudy", McGuinn was considered a "

dark horse A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person, team or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, that is unlikely to succeed but has a fighting chance, unlike the underdog who is exp ...

" on the country music scene, due in part to his jazz background and

beatnik Beatniks were members of a social movement in the mid-20th century, who subscribed to an anti- materialistic lifestyle. They rejected the conformity and consumerism of mainstream American culture and expressed themselves through various forms ...

image, which were considered outside the norms of country radio. "Mrs. Steven Rudy" was a top ten hit on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' country music charts, and the highest-selling single on the country singles sales charts for five consecutive weeks. His album entered the

Top Country Albums Top Country Albums is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The 50-position chart lists the most popular country music albums in the country, calculated weekly by Broadcast Data Systems based on physical sales ...

chart at number 18, setting a new record for the highest entry on that chart for the first release from an independent label. "That's a Plan" was eventually released as the second single, followed by "She Doesn't Dance". These songs peaked at numbers 25 and 29, respectively, on the country charts. Rick Cohoon of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

rated the album four stars out of five, saying that it "combines an entertaining musical arrangement with solid songwriting."

After first album

On the day of the

September 11, 2001, attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Hijackers in the September 11 attacks#Hijackers, Nineteen terrorists hijacked four com ...

, McGuinn wrote and recorded a tribute song entitled "More Beautiful Today". He insisted that the song not be released to radio (although it did receive enough airplay to enter the country charts), and made it available only as a download on his website. McGuinn also wrote a song entitled " Unusually Unusual", which was recorded by the country band

Lonestar Lonestar (formerly known as Texassee) is an American country music band from Nashville, Tennessee. The band consists of Drew Womack (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar), Michael Britt (lead guitar, background vocals), Dean Sams (key ...

on their 2001 album ''

I'm Already There ''I'm Already There'' is the fourth studio album by American country music band Lonestar. Released in 2001 on BNA Records (see 2001 in country music), the album was certified platinum by the RIAA for sales of one million copies. Serving as si ...

''. This song was released in late 2002 as a single, reaching number 12 on the country charts. Later that year, VFR declared bankruptcy, leaving McGuinn without a record deal. He then took a break to begin a family. McGuinn returned to the studio in 2005 to record his second album, ''One Man's Crazy''. It was released that year on Blue Flamingo Records, an independent label started by McGuinn and one of his co-writing partners, Jim Foster. "More Beautiful Today" was also reprised for this album. In 2008,

George Jones George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American Country music, country musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for a long list of hit records, and is well known for his distinctive voice an ...

released the single "You and Me and Time", which McGuinn co-wrote.

''Mark McGuinn'' (2001)

Track listing

# " Mrs. Steven Rudy" (Mark McGuinn, Shane Decker) – 3:29 # "Heaven Must Be Missin' You" (McGuinn, Trey Matthews) – 3:41 # "No Way" (McGuinn, Matthews) – 2:29 # " That's a Plan" (Bobby Boyd, David Leone) – 3:26 # "If the World Was Mine" (McGuinn, Decker) – 4:29 # "One of Their Own" (McGuinn, Boyd) – 3:52 # " She Doesn't Dance" (McGuinn, Don Pfrimmer, Decker) – 4:12 # "Silver Platter" (McGuinn, Matthews) – 3:58 # "All About the Ride" (McGuinn, Boyd, Billy Davidson) – 3:20 # "Love Don't Float" (McGuinn, Jim Foster) – 3:38 # "Busy Signal" (McGuinn, Matthews) – 4:28 # "Done It Right" (McGuinn, Pfrimmer, Decker) – 3:04

Personnel

*Steve Bryant – bass guitar * J. T. Corenflos – electric guitar *Gary DiBenedetto –

steel guitar A steel guitar () is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conventional guitar i ...

Dan Dugmore Dan Dugmore is an American session musician known primarily for playing the pedal steel guitar Born in 1949, Dugmore was raised in Pasadena, California. Influenced by the Flying Burrito Brothers, he learned to play steel guitar after Flying Bur ...

– steel guitar *Glen Duncan –

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

*Gary Hogue – steel guitar *Don Kerce – bass guitar *Wayne Killius – drums, drum loops, percussion *Troy Lancaster – electric guitar *Mark McGuinn – lead vocals,

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are u ...

*Dennis McCracken – background vocals *Curt Ryle –

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, background vocals *Scott Sanders – steel guitar *Wanda Vick –

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

Dobro Dobro () is an American brand of resonator guitars owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally a gui ...

, fiddle,

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

*Dennis Wage – piano, keyboards

Chart positions

''One Man's Crazy'' (2006)

Track listing

# "One Man's Crazy" (Mark McGuinn, Don Pfrimmer) – 4:00 # "115lbs" (M. McGuinn, Jim Foster) – 3:48 # "Deep" (M. McGuinn, Pfrimmer) – 3:05 # "Bring 'Em Back" (M. McGuinn, Stacey McGuinn) – 4:16 # "Turtle" (M. McGuinn, Foster) – 3:31 # "Better a Painful Ending" (M. McGuinn, Sharyn Lane) – 4:26 #*duet with Georgette Jones # "Trampoline" (M. McGuinn, John Reynolds) – 4:09 # "Centreville" (M. McGuinn, Pfrimmer, Dennis McCraken) – 3:25 # "Mona Lisa" (M. McGuinn, Trey Matthews) – 3:27 # "Everest" (M. McGuinn, Pfrimmer) – 3:31 # "Y" (M. McGuinn, Reynolds) – 2:47 # "Wide Open" (M. McGuinn, Kevin Fisher) – 4:07 # "Big Girl" (M. McGuinn) – 2:53 # "More Beautiful Today" (M. McGuinn, Reynolds, Bill Davidson) – 5:01

Personnel

*Mark McGuinn – lead vocals,

, electric guitar,

, strings,

Wurlitzer electric piano The Wurlitzer electronic piano is an electric piano manufactured and marketed by Wurlitzer from 1954 to 1983. Sound is generated by striking a metal reed with a hammer, which induces an electric current in a pickup. It is conceptually similar to ...

, trumpet *Jim Brown – piano, keyboards *Bill Davidson – electric guitar,

*Georgette Jones – background vocals ("Wide Open") *Don Kerce – bass guitar, drum programming, cello, percussion *Wayne Killius – drums, drum loops *Jim Kimball – acoustic guitar *Dennis McCracken – background vocals ("Wide Open") *Russ Pahl – Dobro, electric guitar,

*Danny Parks – electric guitar,

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that ...

12-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in ...

baritone guitar The baritone guitar is a guitar with a longer scale length, typically a larger body, and heavier internal bracing, so it can be tuned to a lower pitch. Gretsch, Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, ESP Guitars, PRS Guitars, Music Man, Danelectro, Sche ...

archtop guitar An archtop guitar is a hollow acoustic guitar, acoustic or semi-acoustic guitar, semi-acoustic guitar with a full body and a distinctive arched top, whose sound is particularly popular with jazz guitar, jazz, blues, and rockabilly players. Typic ...

*Brian Pruitt – drums, drum loops *Wanda Vick –

Singles

Music videos

References

External links

MarkMcGuinn.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGuinn, Mark 1968 births American country pianists American male pianists American country singer-songwriters Living people Musicians from Greensboro, North Carolina Singer-songwriters from North Carolina 20th-century American pianists Country musicians from North Carolina 21st-century American pianists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians American male singer-songwriters Grimsley High School alumni