Synopsis

I wish I could say with enthusiasm that the last three weeks have been filled with jubilant reception and rampant demand. You would undoubtedly like to hear that we have sold out theaters across the states, and that a European tour is scheduled for the spring. I would like to tell you these things, with certainty. Instead, we crawl out of the basements, hotel rooms, and back rooms each morning, shaking off the situation of the day before. Each day has been laden with excuses for where the audience isn’t. With the exception of a few appropriately organized concerts, many nights have fallen flat. We load our gear, sound check, mentally prepare and do our best, for even looking out towards a dark and empty dance floor an interested person could be quietly listening from the shadows – so we pull together as not to exude a despondent nature or lethargy. I have to convince my bandmates that “this” is worth doing, at least for one more month.
While walking in a park near downtown Omaha, Raianne and I came upon these concrete structures placed sparingly throughout the grounds. Each resembled some sort of foundation tipped on its side, or like a flower bloom with an opening in each center. On the lip of each opening, carved upside down, was a word – this art installation was put there to make people reflect on a theme. The first one we came upon read “humility.” When you lay down inside one, the word could be read right side up.
In five years of touring, I have never experienced such a consistent lack of listener support. For all the newspapers contacted, all the posters hung, all the local bands’ assistance and any radio plays – not many have heard our concerts this year or this new record. And it wears on you. Night after night, one begins to view the situation as hopeless.
But is it purely a quality inherent in the action and the object, of being an Artist and creating Art? To do that which is not only absurd but which also creates unnecessary hardship – isn’t that what it means to be an artist? Not to have a bunch of rock-star-esque drunken escapades, not to sell a million records ergo financial success, not to have one’s name in lights or one’s face plastered far and wide for the world to icono-molest.
“It’s your job to make sweet tunes,” says Ralph Jaccodine manager for singer/songwriter Ellis Paul. Our phone conversation ended with an affirmation of hard work, hard traveling, and a recognition of “doing everything right.” I would leave his office with a briefcase full of “tunes” sticking all out from the clasps, like a salesman looking for a customer or like a Jehovah’s Witness looking for someone to hear the word. Who wants a broom when one could have a custom model, 22nd century, Hoover-sucker with headlights and spinning wheels, automatic traction control, beeps, boops, whistles, a dopamine air-poofer cinnamon scented and all the while you’ve learned to let the lint lay there because the tacky state of the art roller device is set 1/16” above actual contact? Many people have these machines and many people have dirty floors.
“The world can wait,” says my good friend and labelmate Karrie Hopper. And I believe it will still be here, unfortunately in the same state a decade or a century from now – just maybe faster and with its problems even further internalized. There will always be that to rally against, an enemy outside ourselves to fight and yell at. And for the few that can sit quiet long enough and for the ones who wonder about changing from within, my briefcase will be buried deep in the woods and a map to it will be mailed to you by our label, but in the future it will become even harder to buy stamps.

Who is this Mark Mandeville & Old Constitution Band anyways??

Mark Mandeville & Old Constitution is a collaborative musical project including Mark Mandeville (Just for Sundae, The Overtones, The Brands, "the accident that led me to the world"), Raianne Richards ("the accident that led me to the world"), Dylan Clark (Grey Milk, The Points North) and Zach Peckham (Motel Mattress). Performing shows together in separate groups for years, these musicians came together in January of 2011 and started work on a new album of Mark Mandeville's songs. As the songs began to progress the group decided to enlist the help of Hannah Peckham (vocal harmony), Doug Williamson (Piano, harmonica, papusse, mandolin) and Peter Hart (Dobro, Pedal Steel) forming a rich folk country sound.

After spending 7 Months recording, the group performed for an audience for the first time on August 6, 2011 at the annual Celebration of Life Festival in Barre, MA. With their logo (hand drawn by MA artist Dan Blakeslee) hand painted on a barn at the grounds of the above festival the group plans to tour the United States this fall with arrangements including drums, bass, electric lead guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo, ukulele and clarinet.

The group is currently raising money for their tour by selling T-shirts with the new logo on them. If you would like to support their cause by ordering a T-shirt please email your size and color preference (red with white lettering or tan with brown lettering) to mark@markmandeville.com