Vol. I · new album · pre-orders soon
Wake
Up
Slide guitar that cuts straight to the bone.
A record about facing fear and grief, and the patterns we keep walking back into — cut across studios all over Michigan, arriving in two volumes.
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Instagram reach / month
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Instagram followers
Primal energy
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Killing time
Talk to Mark →
Huggy Bear collage extraordinaire
Listen everywhere →
The Bear Den · door art by Keemo
Track 01
Shows
Venues & talent buyers
Got a date? Put it in.
Mark routes months out and builds runs around confirmed anchors. Drop the room, the date and what it carries — full band, solo, MC or workshop — and you'll hear back inside two business days.
Fan and no date yet? Just send your city.
Name and email. ZIP and phone if you like. Nothing sold, nothing shared.
Track 02
The record
There's a door you keep arriving at. You've been through it before, and somehow you're standing in front of it again, carrying the same fear and a little more grief. That's the country these songs live in — the circle you walk, and the patience of whatever's waiting at the end of it. Waking up was never one morning. It's a thing you have to keep choosing, usually a half-step late.
Featuring The Crane Wives. Co-produced with Joe Hettinga (The Olllam) — months of throwing ideas back and forth, keeping the ones that held and cutting the ones that were only clever, until each song sat down on what it was actually about. Songs written shoulder-to-shoulder with Aaron Allen — whose songs Billy Strings, Paul Hoffman and Joshua Davis have cut — and with Russell Brakefield, author and poet (Winter/Sessions), working in something close to a Borgesian key — mirrors, maps, labyrinths, the same road arriving back at itself. "In Transit" was recorded with a full band — Josh Rilko (Sierra Ferrell), PJ George (Old Crow Medicine Show) and Lindsay Lou — during the Lindsay Lou Southland recording sessions, and co-produced with the band and Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter, Langhorne Slim, Lake Street Dive, David Ramirez, Dustbowl Revival).
Michigan made him and the road kept him — fifteen years of it, regional to national to a few rooms an ocean away, with the Lindsay Lou years folded in somewhere near the middle. Back home he's the co-founder and Ambassador of Smiling Acres Music Festival — a weekend-before-the-Fourth-of-July gathering of friends that grew into a festival. The slide is the tell — somewhere between a hymn and a harp, a sound that doesn't ask permission before it goes straight at the thing you'd rather not say out loud. And when the lights come up he's still at the merch table, last one talking. That part isn't an afterthought. That's the job.
Where it stands
Liner notes
Wake Up sessions · Vol. I
The hat, the beard, the ear
Contact sheet · the shoot
Track 03 · Watch
Wake Up — official video
Track 04
Book Mark
Mark Lavengood is a Grand Rapids, Michigan dobro player, songwriter and bandleader. The Mark Lavengood Band is the ask — festivals through theaters and listening rooms. Mark also works as an MC, host, and artist-at-large, so if you need a stage run, a solo set, a workshop, or someone sitting in across a weekend, he'll wear that hat too.
The band
Festivals, theaters, listening rooms, breweries. The preferred ask.
Book this → 02Prine Time
Ten years of the John Prine Tribute. A full band playing Prine's classics the way they were meant to be heard — loud, loose and all together.
Book this → 03MC & host
MC'd the inaugural Ionia Freak Fair — mainstage, 28,000 people.
Book this → 04Artist at large
Has sat in with Billy Strings, Lindsay Lou, Greensky Bluegrass, Amy Helm, Johnny Mullenax and plenty more. Plugs into any bill.
Book this → 05Sideman for the stars
Hired gun on dobro, lap and pedal steel, banjo, mandolin, guitars, upright and electric bass. Tours, one-off sit-ins.
Book this → 06Private events
Weddings, house concerts, corporate nights, backyard parties. Solo, duo or full band.
Book this → 07The Bear Den
Mark's own studio. Tracking, production and remote dobro or lap steel sessions — a lot of Wake Up was made in this room.
Book a session → 08Sync & licensing
A deep catalog of slide, roots and instrumental beds — clean stems, fast turnaround.
Request a license → 09Gear shop
Dobros, lap steels and road-tested gear from Mark's own rig. Tell him what you're after.
Ask about gear → 10Music With Mark
The Complete Dobro Module Series — beginner through advanced, 21+ hours, new lessons added regularly. $21 a month, cancel anytime.
Start the modules →Booking work order
Track 05 · the store
The goods
Records, shirts, hats, mugs and stickers. Wake Up Vol. I pre-orders open soon.
Thread Nectar Huggy Jacket
$150Denim by Thread Nectar — gold-stitched ML cuff. Limited run, only 2 available.
No Part of Nothin' 12" Vinyl
$30Billy Strings plays on this one. On wax, painted cover art.
Trippy Sasquatch Foam Hat — Orange
$30Otto foam front trucker, full-color patch.
Streamdreams Sticker
$5You had to be there. St. Vrain River, backstage at Planet Bluegrass. Photo by Lindsay Lou.
theComplete Dobro Module Series
$21/MO21+ hours, beginner through advanced. New lessons added regularly. Cancel anytime.
Join now →Recurring designs — the Huggy Bear · the Hand · the Sasquatch. Checkout is secured and handled by the store; shipping is flat-rate in the US.
Track 06
