Mark Arshak - Unchained: A Native Son Takes up the Blues Challenge in Memphis

Nov. 17, 2004

Mark Arshak not only plays the blues, he lives them. Five years ago he walked away from his secure union contracting job to pursue his dream of being a full time musician. What with a wife and two kids and the competitive nature of the music industry, one would think Arshak might have made a mistake. But Arshak is a blues man and the only mistake a blues man makes is not following his heart.
See, every time the hammer hits the nail, a blues man knows he should be striking the next chord instead. Each day that a blues man straps on his tool pouch he knows that the only tool he should be strapping on is his guitar. Playing the blues isn’t a choice – it is a calling – and Mark Arshak has been called.

DRAFTED TO COMPETE
Arshak, a resident of southeastern Michigan near Jackson, has been making a name for himself at Northern Michigan blues clubs over the past several years. So much so that members of the Mid/North Blues Society asked him to compete in their annual blues competition this past September.
At stake, a coveted spot in the International Blues Challenge this February in Memphis where the hottest “unsigned” blues bands from around the world will compete for cash and a recording contract. Blues greats Larry Garner, Tommy Castro and Susan Tedeschi were all discovered at that Challenge.
Competing against seven other bands from Michigan this year, The Mark Arshak Band not only won the regional competition but they impressed long-time blues music photographer David Fox, who served as chief judge of the competition.
“All the bands were great, but Arshak and his band performed at a level necessary to win at the next level,” said Fox. “I expect them to do quite well; they definitely have what it takes to be a big time blues band.”
The road to Memphis starts in Traverse City. The Mark Arshak Band will perform a “Celebration Concert” to help raise funds to support the band’s trip with a “Going To Memphis” show this Friday, November 19 at Streeters’ Ground Zero Nightclub.

TWO-TIMER
This will be Arshak’s second trip to the International Blues Challenge. A few years back he won the Ohio regional qualifier and headed to Memphis. While he didn’t win overall, he doesn’t feel like he lost either.
“Look, there are 60 bands and only one is going to win,” said Arshak. “I went down with the idea that I was going to get my name out there, make some contacts, line up some gigs. As bands lost they packed in and went home. Not me. When I didn’t make it to the final round I walked around Beale Street handing out my CD.”
It paid off as Arshak has had regular gigs at the famed King’s Palace in Memphis every year since. This year’s approach will be the same as the last time. Arshak is going down to win and plans to score even if he doesn’t take the top prize.
“Tammy Castro didn’t win it, but now he is at the top of the heap in the blues world,” said Arshak. “We are going to make a DVD of our performance at Streeters. We have a major production company coming in with three cameras and I am going to pass that DVD out to as many people as possible.”
Arshak plays a hard drivin’ Texas meets Chicago via the Mississippi Delta-style blues. Listen to the surface of Arshak’s guitar playing and it is obvious that Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Kings (Albert and BB), along with Albert Collins have all influenced his playing.
A deeper listen and one will hear Arshak’s Detroit rock guitar influences. The Detroit in him comes from growing up during the exploding late ’60s Motor City rock scene. The blues in him comes from when his family moved to Roscommon when he was 15.

ROSCOMMON BLUES
“It was hard; I had a band, friends and there was all this great music around me in Detroit,” said Arshak. “But the economy was tight and my father, who had a Ph.D, had to settle for a job teaching English at Kirtland Community College. I went from hippies and hard rock back into time. It was like visiting Happy Days.”
Arshak didn’t enjoy his days in Roscommon and spent his time in his room honing his guitar skills. He formed a rock band in his garage, but his band mates were not serious. So after graduating from high school he grabbed his guitar, put up his thumb on I-75 and ended up in Texas where he worked construction jobs and hung out in blues clubs. Eventually, he headed west to California but realized he missed the Midwest, so he landed a job as a dockhand working the tugboat system on the Mississippi River.
“I brought my guitar and harmonica with me on the boats and practiced every chance I got,” said Arshak. “I learned rock and roll in Detroit but it was in the south where I learned to play to blues.”
Tiring of the tugboat scene and longing to start a band, Arshak returned to Michigan to form the King Snakes in 1981. The band headquartered in Traverse City where they were regulars at Union Street. They featured a two-guitar/two-harmonica attack featuring a Little Walter and Muddy Waters Chicago blues sound. But live music was struggling in those days and while the band was popular at blues clubs around the state, money was tight.

BACK TO TUGBOATS
“I had to hock my amp to pay bills, and without equipment I couldn’t perform, so I headed back to the tugboats,” said Arshak. “In 1989 I took a skilled trades construction job in the Detroit area and started playing with bands on the weekends. A little over five years ago I said to myself, ‘Hey Mark, you ain’t getting any younger – it is now or never for this music thing.’ So I quit and started working at my music full time.”
So, has it been worth it?
“I would be lying if I said that there haven’t been a lot of disappointments and a plenty of stress along the way,” said Arshak. “My family has had to go without a lot of things by having a father and husband who is a musician on the road all the time. It hasn’t been easy, but it has been worth it. Call me after February 5, 2005 and it might have all been really worth it.”
Win, lose or draw, when Mark Arshak hits Memphis, he has already won. Arshak has the one quality that lacks in many who possess musical talent: “a positive attitude.” While many bitch and moan in this business about how they are more talented than someone who has made it, Arshak doesn’t. He keeps working hard and doesn’t complain or compare. He doesn’t have to because he’s got the goods. Now he just needs the break.

Help The Mark Arshak Band get that break by attending the “Going to Memphis Celebration Concert” Friday at Streeters’ Ground Zero Nightclub. Tickets are $6 in advance and $8 at the door. Doors open at 6 p.m. with a special happy hour and music starts at 7 p.m. with several area blues musicians coming to offer their support before Arshak and his band hit the stage. Call Streeters for additional information or tickets at (231) 932-1300. Arshak will also perform Thursday, November 18 at Union Street Station and Saturday at the Williamsburg Theater for a special concert to benefit the Boys & Girls Club.