Well well, Marc Ford, eh? Who? You know, the guitarist whom took over from original The Black Crowes member Jeff Cease in 1991, just in time to contribute to that band's sophomore album The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion...and whom went on to contribute to both the band's sound and albums Amorica (1994) and Three Snakes And A Charm (as well as the band's unreleased albums Tall and Band of 1993 and 1997; which were released together in 2006 as The Lost Crowes), before being kicked out of the band in the Fall of 1997 because of excessive drugs abuse. So...what has he done since?
Quite a bit, really, so get ready for quite long story...but before getting into that, let's just mention that prior to his induction into the ranks of The Black Crowes, Marc had been active with his own band Burning Tree in the late '80s, which released a critically acclaimed self-titled album in 1990 (unfortunately, it didn't sell as expected, and therefore the band was kicked off Epic Records). Burning Tree however went onto one (and only one) tour, supporting The Black Crowes...which is how it came to be that he occasionally sat in on The Crowes' shows, performing the Allman Bothers Band's classic hit “Dreams”. A bond was made, and when The Crowes severed themselves from their original guitarist, Marc was asked to step in.
Following his departure from The Crowes, Marc first spent time in a rehab center, and then formed his solo band Marc Ford And The Uninvited, with which he did live appearances in the US for the rest of 1997. Prior to joining the Chris Stills Band for a Summer 1998 tour, Marc sat in on several gigs with the renowned ja band Gov't Mule, and after his sting with Stills he formed Federale. They gained attention from Interscope Records, who immediately signed them. But while the band did a brief tour, the label was bought out by Universal Music Group, and with the band's commercial viability suddenly put into question by the major label, they split up! Thanks to joining the Pink Floyd/ Blues jam/ tribute band Blue Floyd in 2000, Ford stayed in the public eye (as the band's own Bluesy takes on PF classics were rather a great success) while he thought over the next move in his career. He decided to go solo again at the close of 2001, making regular acoustic-based appearances at Malibu's Malibu Inn where, in January 2002, he was joined on stage by his former bandmate Chris Robinson for a set of covers. The latter again joined Ford on stage a couple of weeks later, stating that they had made amends after Ford's dismissal from The Black Crowes. Ford even went on to co-write the track “Sunday Sound”, a track which would be on Robinson's solo debut New Earth Mud.
Ford next decided to form a fully electric band again, named Marc Ford And The Sinners and featuring Blue Floyd's Berry Oakley Jr. on the bass, and newcomers Chris Joyner and Gootch on keyboards and drums respectively. The band started out on a tour in early 2002, and in between gigs Ford (with and without his Sinners) would take out time to record the band's debut album It's About Time, which was released through Anko Records in the Fall of that same year. In 2003, renowned Country Rock singer Lucinda Williams became somewhat of an ambassador for the band, and got 'em a deal with Lost Highway Records. Ford started preparing for recording sessions, but the deal fell through when the band's representative at the label got fired. With no label to back the band financially, Marc Ford And The Sinners were quite unable to continue joining Williams' ongoing tour (onto which they had a fairly open-ended slot)...and just at that moment, Ford himself got an offer to join Ben Harper And The Innocents. Ford accepted, putting his own band on indefinite hiatus! Ford toured with Harper's band for the majority of 2003 (from the our an EP entitled Live At The Hollywood Bowl was culled), and he continued this association until the end of 2004, contributing to There Will Be A Light, Harper's collaboration album with The Blind Boys Of Alebama.
Meanwhile, following a 3-year hiatus, the Robinson brothers reformed The Black Crowes, and Ford was called in to join in on the reunion tour and ensuing studio album (which came later). He however continued to also collaborate with Harper, appearing on the latter's 2006 album Both Sides Of The Gun, and playing several gigs in support of it. He went on tour with The Black Crowes throughout the Summer of 2006, and several new songs were being debuted, but no studio material was as yet released. Then, in early Sept. of that same year, actually days before The Black Crowes were to start on another leg of their reunion tour, Ford decided to leave the band. He later made a statement that he left to hold onto his hard-fought sobriety, at the same time announcing he'd recently produced albums for The Pawnshop Kings and Ryan Bingham.
Shortly after that, Ford reunited with the members of his very first band, Burning Tree for three gigs at Hollywood venue The King King. Having already started pre-production on a new studio album, he next enlisted the help of those bandmates, along with that of his son, Elijah, for the recordings of Weary And Wired, which was released in March 2007 on Blues Bureau (a subsidiary of Shrapnel Records). Recruiting a new drummer in Dennis Morehouse, the album was promoted with a tour which lasted throughout the rest of the year, and found found the band performing throughout the US, and play a few select European dates in Spain, Germany, Russia, as well as a couple of festivals this side of the Atlantic!
But it would seem that the guitarist was still restless, as in early 2008 he played sporadic shows on the West Coast, either with Fuzz Machine, or with his new band, Jefferson Steelplex. On top of that, Marc and his son Elijah joined Ryan Bingham for several dates on the tour the latter was undertaking in support of the Mescalito album, which Ford had produced, and he joined Bingham on stage for performances on the popular TV sit-coms The Tonight Show and Late Night With Conan O'Brien during Summer 2008. In the meantime, Ford was also producing the Grace & Melody album by The Sleepwater Band, which he'd gotten acquainted with during his Summer 2007 tour, when they shared a festival bill in Bilbao (Spain). In fact, Ford had joined the band on stage for some jam covers, and later (when Ford's band was headlining a gig in Chicago in July 2007) two members of The Sleepwater Band joined Ford's band on stage. September 2008 then saw the release of Marc Ford And The Neptune Blues Club, The Neptune Blues Club being a reconfiguration of the Jefferson Steelflex band with which Ford had performed some shows earlier in the year. During the rest of the year, he played lead guitar at the Vineyard Community Church in Laguna Niguel, California, and via that, took it upon himself to produce Chris Lizotte's album Signal Hill Revival, which was released in early 2009.
From now on, things start slowing down a bit, although we still have plenty of info to go through. Early 2009 it was also rumoured that The Neptune Blues Club had started working on a new album. However, Frd's deal with Blues Bureau had expired with the release of the first album of the band, and by mid-2009 it was revealed that the band had also withered away. One sole track from the sessions survived, and it was later released through online distributor Bandcamp.com. From June through September 2009, Marc then joined the touring band of renowned Blues artist Booker T. Jones (whom you might know from Booker T. And The MG's?), and in the Fall he launched a download site of his archive of soundboard recordings for his solo works, at first at least focusing on live recordings from The Neptune Blues Club! In Feb. 2010 then, Ford released his fourth studio album Fuzz Machine, with material recorded during a touring break in 2007 with the band by the same name. A mini-tour of Spain, coinciding with the album's release, found Ford using The Steepwater Band as his backing band. It also coincided with the launch of a new website centered around that album, which was originally exclusively available at the mini-tour's performances (and then only online starting November).
In 2011, Ford produced the Jonny Burke album Distance And Fortune (which was only released through Bandcamp.com), and in 2012 he did the same with The Phantom Limb's The Pines. The British band regrettably ceased to exist somewhere last year, but when time came for Ford to record Holy Ghost, he asked the band's former members to give him a favour in turn, by aiding him with the recordings and ensuing live dates. He'd put it in his mind that the material he'd just written, was just right up The Phantom Limb's alley...and some of 'em indeed answered his call in kind. Stew Jackson (one of the band's two guitarists) even acted as producer of the album, which was recorded at the legendary Rockfield Studio in Wales, with additional help of Ford's wife Kirsten on backing vocals and his son Elijah on guitar. During May of last, Ford took the Phantom Limb members to Holland for a short run of shows. In early September (coinciding with the album's release over there), he even takes the band on a tour of the US, one which will last through to late October.
It has to be said: to many the material on Holy Ghost may be somewhat of a surprise, because what you get here is a Roots music which ventures into Country and Alt-Country regions, with an emphasis on acoustics and only sparse electric guitar moments. Well, there àre some nice “Rock” moments anyway, you know, like the songs “I'm Free” and “Sometimes”, but at other instants the music is occasionally ruled by keyboard sounds (from organ to piano – the latter most prominently during the album's closing track, “Call Me Faithful”). The album being available from Amazon MP3, means you can listen to 30-second samples of all 12 tracks on the album. For some odd reason, the info at Ford's official website (www.) marcordonline.com is posted in Japanese, which becomes quite incomprehensible when put through the online translation. At any rate, there's no music posted there...and at (http://) marcford.bandcamp.com, the only album available for listening is Fuzz Machine. Even at Ford's official facebook page (www.) facebook.com/marcfordmusic, the only music available is a live video of a song Ford played with The Jayhawks at last July's Summertime Americana Festival...so I'm afraid the Amazon material will have to make your due!
As to my personal appreciation of the album, I have to say it took me a while to get into the material (its review coming at a moment when I was into quite another “zone”), but after several listening sessions I've come to the conclusion that there's more to the music than comes out at first ear. In other words: here's an album your more experienced music lover might well enjoy! Of course, it's always better to get warned of what's to be expected...and that's something which hereby happened, right?!