Chronogram
May 2006 by J. Spica
Mark Brown: Uncle Buckle
Rambling his way from the Northern Pacific to Ireland, Mark Brown has lived the life on the iterant laborer and musician. Now back in Kingston, he and his band cover the musical journey on the gritty trail from youth (with songs like “Sex in Cars” and “ Gravel Pit Girl”) to the drinking years of young adulthood in “PBR,” an ode to Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. The musicians are Hudson Valley homeboys --- Brown sings and plays guitar, John Hughes provides bass, Fooch Fischetti works the pedal steel guitar and plays fiddle, and Dean Jones supplies percussion and everything else.
“Gravel Train” touches on the difficulties that forge one’s character, and Brown sings it as if Tom Waits went bluegrass. There are several musical poems that are under two minutes, one being “Paper Thin,” a hillbilly punk twang that makes fun of itself with the lyrics (“just a cheap little song, maybe a little too long.”)
Uncle Buckle performs at the Mezzanine Café and wine bar on Friday, May 26 at 8pm.

Preview: The Daily Freeman’s Weekly Guide to Events
May 26, 2006
“Uncle Buckle” isn’t just the title of Kingston singer-songwriter Mark Brown’s debut album and the name of the 30 second songlet that kicks it off. It is also what Brown calls the loose, changeable band he cobbles together to perform his rough-carved songs.
Next to Brown’s raw voice and guitar, the outfits other constant is the presence of Saugerties multitalented Dean Jones, best known for his trombone stylings in various avant-jazz settings and with hot local Latin ensemble Sonando. Here M.V.P. Jones makes his debut on drums and contributes ukulele, synthesizer and backing vocals. The disc’s other key player is Fooch Fischetti, whose pedal steel guitar gives the album much of its atmospheric, honkey-tonk character.
But it’s Brown’s earth tunes that hold Uncle Buckle together, sepia toned Walker Evans vignettes that cast a lens on the memorable characters and events he has encountered during his woody Guthrie-esque existence as a farmer, mechanic, fisherman and carpenter. In the Neil Youngish “PBR,” Brown sings of attempting to kill rural boredom by shooting empty beer cans and smoking, er, “suspicious” cigarettes; “Gravel Pit Girl” is a sleepy weeper of an ode to the resident dirt bike diva of some backwoods wasteland.
Naturally the myth of the ramblin’ man looms large in Brown’s repertoire too. Check the 25-second micro-haikus “Trouble on the Train” and the hard-scrabble “Dirt Road.” Throughout, the vagabond poetry of his lyrics and their coarse delivery prove the perfect match. During “East End Blues,” as his parched baritone croaks out the lines “Ever had a day when/ the most precious thing to have would be/ a pair of dry shoes,” be ready to watch your speakers crumble into dust and blow away. Brown lives in the Rondout, but sounds like prefers Death Valley.
A pungent, rust-flavored homebrew distilled from the murky spirits of such journey-man troubadour-poets as John Prine, Johnny Cash, Lee Hazelwood, Townes Van Zant and Tom Waits, “Uncle Buckle’s” gritty sound and catchy hooks are rich with damaged beauty. Brown’s vision is a welcome alternative to that of Jack Johnson, James Taylor and the other whiny lightweights that currently dominate the F.M. dial.