Bio

Painting by June Moon http://www.junemoon.com/  

 Download "Long Ago" from the new album Fatwa  

Marc Gartband
Fatwa 

Before one even gets to the music on the new Marc Gartband CD ‘Fatwa’ one comes
face to face with the cover first. ‘Laughing Jesus’, painted by Minneapolis based
artist June Moon in 1975, in her own words, “represents the transcendence of spiritual
awareness - that in the depths of our sorrow lies the awareness of the pure joy and
ecstasy of Eternal Love”. Marc Gartman (Two Many Banjos, Coyote) thought the picture
summed up his thoughts regarding all the different songs on what he proudly calls his
most accomplished CD to date.   

Predominately recorded live to tape in June 2010 by famed producer/songwriter Rich
Mattson (Ol’ Yeller, The Tisdales) the session went fast and easy. 13 songs were
recorded, 11 made the CD and there’s about as many genres of music on Fatwa as
there is material to be heard.   

It’s worth noting that Gartman wrote all the songs on his 8 string Irish bouzouki using a
unique tuning that he stumbled upon about two years back. It has also been one year
since the last Gartband CD ‘I Am A Fool For You’ which was also an all bouzouki affair.
It’s a bit unfair though to speak only of the bouzouki on this record for while the songs
were written on the instrument it’s the band on the session that truly makes the music
come alive.   

The core quartet for the album brought bold, sonic statements to each and every note
they recorded. Dave Carroll (Trampled By Turtles) on banjo and vocals, Matt Mobley
(Two Many Banjos) on upright bass and Bryan ‘Lefty’ Johnson (Two Many Banjos) on
percussion. There were also some very special guests on many of the tracks that are
worth noting. Both Ryan Young on fiddle and Erik Berry on mandolin from Trampled By
Turtles raised the bar on their individual tracks. The somewhat indescribable additions
from Duluth iconoclasts Adam Sippola on vocals and Kathy Mctavish (Cello Dreams) on
cello almost defy characterization.   

Folks might also wonder why this is called Marc Gartband as opposed to Two Many
Banjos since both bands share the same members. This is a fair question indeed. It
seems Gartman isn’t having any trouble writing songs at the moment and different tunes
go in different places. For the time being Gartman has resolved in his head to keep the
banjo material on TMB records and bouzouki creations somewhere else. In his brain this
is also the 2nd in a planned trilogy of Gartband bouzouki records; the third will come out in 2011.  

‘Fatwa’ will be released on Friday October 15th at Pizza Luce in Duluth, MN. The band
will also perform live at 2:00pm the same day on KUMD 103.3fm.  

For booking inquiries please contact Marc Gartman marcgart@hotmail.com 218 269-1861 .  

Download "Long Ago" from the new album Fatwa  

For Booking inquiries please contact Marc Gartman: : marcgart@hotmail.com or 218 269-1861

The band can be contacted at myspace.com or at www.twomanybanjos.com by filling out a contact form