01/04/2024
It is with a heavy heart I have to report the passing of my friend, mentor, bandmate, and parter in crime, Mark Murray.
I first met Mark as my instructor at South Plains College in Levelland, TX in about 1987.
He had just left Caldwell Studios in Lubbock for a sound tech teaching job at the school. I had him for my synthesis class. Mark was a wiz at the synthesizer having grown up listening to the great synth players for Yes, Gentle Giant, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Wendy Carlos, plus many more. Mark wrote the text book for synthesis they used (and may still use) at South Plains College.
Mark had been in numerous bands before my time, but the most successful was Asparagus Nightmares, consisting of Mark Murray-keyboards, vocals, Tom Blackburn-guitar, Mark Matos-bass, and Johnny Ray on drums.
As I was finishing school, the only place I wanted to work was Caldwell Studios. Mark put in a good word for me and I got my job a few months after I graduated.
A year or so later Mark returned to Caldwell Studios as an engineer and we both worked there at the same time. During this time we also spent many studio hours with Don Caldwell, Lloyd Maines, and Steve Meador, my greatest teachers, including Mark Murray.
Around this time Mark was trying to put a new progressive rock band together and I sheepishly said I might be interested in playing drums. You have to remember I had been in country bands and had barely listened to rock music, much less prog rock, so just the idea of me playing in that band was kind of comical. But I had a place to rehearse. It was the shop at our family’s home place in Acuff. The mosquitoes were terrible that summer, so the Mesquite-O-Bytes were born, consisting of Mark Murray-vocals, keyboards, and primary writer, Tom Blackburn-guitar, Kevin Powell-bass, and myself on drums. All of a sudden I was listening to and burning on all kinds of cool music I didn’t know existed. I practiced all the time trying to learn all of these new concepts and styles. Apparently by some miracle a country plow boy from Acuff was playing drums in a prog rock band!
As the winds of change blew, Mark moved to another studio, Jungle Studios, and we had a personnel change in the band. Tom left the band and Curtis Peoples was added as well as singer David Downum. We continued for a couple of years and I had met my wife, Carrie. I decided to leave the band to focus on the studio. Jayson Ferguson took my place. Carrie and I got married at Fourth on Broadway in 1996 on the eclectic stage with the new version of Mesquite-O-Bytes playing for us. After the wedding we had a big barbecue out at our place in Acuff which began a tradition for many years with all of us and our families getting together on the 4th for a big party with fireworks. It was bigger than Christmas!
As more winds of change blew, Mark and his family ended up moving to the DFW area working in IT installation which ultimately landed his job at a national ad agency called The Richards Group as their chief recording engineer. Until a few years ago, the audio for just about every Home Depot spot you heard was recorded by Mark.
My daughter Caitlin and I went to see Styx in Dallas summer before last and spent one night with Mark and his wife, Cindy. We had the best time! He was just starting to have some health issues but didn’t yet have his full cancer diagnosis at that time. That would be the last time I got to see him. I’ll treasure that forever.
Mark was one of the best friends and teachers I ever had. Even when we went months without talking, it was just like yesterday when we did. If you have ever worked with me in the studio there is a huge piece of Mark Murray in what I do. My life would not be the same without him.
Send out some positive vibes for his wife, Cindy, and children Steven, and Christen, as well as their extended family.
Fly high my friend! The world is a better place because of you!
