Bountiful (2003): A Digital EP by Gary Marks
Digital EP released privately by Gary Marks, American singer-songwriter, recording artist, and author.
A Band That Felt Like Family
Bountiful (2003) came out of a band that felt more like a family, which may be one of the reasons why the record has the warmth and connectivity it does. We rehearsed each song until we were inside the stories. Everyone played the lyrics.
The title track with the beautiful name is probably the darkest song I ever wrote. It's about a wife / mother having an affair, lying about it to her husband, and to her children every night as she tucked them in, and eventually leaving the family.... No, it didn't happen to me. I just had this story in my head and played it out lyrically.
Tom Finch, Rob Fordyce and Chris Krotky
Tom Finch (later with Big Brother and the Holding Company) was the fantastic electric guitarist. Rob Fordyce played bass (often like a guitar player, at my request). Our drummer, Chris Krotky, was also, remarkably, our recording engineer, which meant he'd sit behind his drum kit with a Mac computer parked next to the snare, look around at the rest of us to make sure we were ready, hit record, and count in. I've never worked quite that way before or since, and there's a looseness and joy to the record that comes directly out of that setup: nobody watching a clock, nobody worried about studio time running out. It was all just well-rehearsed fun and shared dinners with our friends and families.
Front Cover Painting by Dario Campanile
Front Cover: The cover was painted by Italian artist Dario Campanile, a longtime friend, whose album covers include Herbie Hancock’s Man-Child (1975) and Dave Grusin and Lee Ritenour’s Harlequin, and Gary Marks’s album Crossorads. He also painted Paramount Pictures’ 75th-anniversary logo. https://campanilefineart.com/dario-campanile-biography/
Never Distributed Through a Label
Bountiful was never distributed through a label, like most of what I recorded during this stretch of my career. It went out privately to friends. Of everything from my catalog during those rock years, this is the one that still sounds the most like a great band in a room, because that's exactly what it was.