Search - Mark Islam :: The Fine Print

For his second album, performing songwriter Mark Islam once again demonstrates that he is part journalist, part introspective troubadour. He is by his own admission "first and formost a songwriter. I'm the guy who observes with pen in hand, recording my perceptions." The Delaware native serves up 12 songs, which he either wrote or co-wrote, based on his observations of life in Los Angeles. Like F. Scott Fitzgerald, who chronicled the golden era of Hollywood's Jazz Age in the 1920's, Islam spins engaging yarns about the denizens of La La Land: the upstarts, the scions of the celebrated, the fallen stars, and, on a more personal note, the quest for love in a transient culture with a diminished attention span. Once again working with Edward Tree ("a producer's best friend"), Islam has recorded in analog to capture a warm, organic sound for his hybrid of country, rock, and folk. For the sessions, Islam & Tree assembled veritable legends, who, between them, have recorded and/or toured with the likes of Dwight Yoakam, James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, the Byrds, and Beck. And that's just the short list.