Mark Germino (1950 – 2024) – Americana UK

For those who knew his work, a star songwriter.

Guest author Richard Leader pays his deep personal tribute to Mark Germino.

Poet, singer and songwriter Mark Germino has died at the age of 73. His name isn’t particularly well known, and I suspect he didn’t care, although his music definitely deserved to be heard by more people. He was hardly the most prolific artist, releasing only 5 albums between 1986 and 2021. But each of those albums was a gem, and one in particular was quite a dazzling gem.

Born in North Carolina in 1950, Germino was originally a poet but moved to Nashville in 1974, bought a guitar and became a singer. That was apparently easier than reciting poetry. Like many others around him, he couldn’t make a living as an artist alone, so he drove trucks on the side to pay the bills. I don’t remember exactly how I discovered him, but when I was about 15 or 16, I became interested in folk music. While my friends were listening to The Smiths, I discovered Joni, Neil Young and English folk, especially Fairport Convention, and was completely out of step with it. And here, in 1987, was an album that traversed those worlds. Thoroughly American—what we would now call Americana, but recorded just a few miles from me at the legendary Ridge Farm Studio in Surrey. It featured a number of English musicians, notably the late Martin Allcock (then of Jethro Tull and Fairport Convention and incidentally the best fretless bassist I’ve ever seen), Christin Collister and the legendary Simon Nicoll. The record was produced by former Yardbird Paul Samwell-Smith.

“Caught in the act of being ourselves“” is a shining gem of an album and the final track on side 1 is Germino’s masterpiece. The story of a rebellious small-town radio DJ who gets into trouble for not playing the music the bosses want him to play. “Rex Bob Lowenstein” was the first track I heard, perhaps played by Roger Scott or Bob Harris, and I’ve loved it ever since. Of course it’s a radio DJ favourite, because that’s how we all secretly see ourselves.

Germino spent time with this group of artists who would never become famous, never headline Madison Square Garden or guest star on the Opry. But they played unforgettable shows, swapped songs and told stories. He was close friends with the late Malcolm Holcombe, who wrote a song partly about him: “The music continues’. While Holcombe was a prolific writer and eager to finish his music, Germino was in much less of a hurry. His albums are hard to find and streaming services, despite their brevity, do not have the entire catalog. He made his debut in 1986 with “London mood and stable remedies”, “Caught red-handed, being ourselves” was recorded in 1987, but is a rarity today. “Radar City”with his band The Sluggers was released in 1991 (and also included a version of “Rex Bob Lowenstein”) and then we had to wait five years until “Ordinary members” came out. Then nothing. So it was a real surprise to get an album from him in 2021, “Midnight Carnival”. And it was a great album too, featuring the great Kenny Vaughn on guitar and a number of excellent session musicians from Nashville.

Germino will be missed by many. The tributes on the internet from people who knew him are warm and speak fondly of him, remembering their conversations, the songs and the man. For me, and I’m sure for many, his crowning moment was the story of a man who was 47 years old and soon to be 16 and barricaded himself in the studio of Radio WANT. “Rex Bob Lowenstein”.

There is a link on his website to contact him directly, rather than through the usual music agent or management company. My only regret is that I never used it to thank him for his great recordings.

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