North Carolina Dentist Makes An Album With Legendary Rock Stars Using Internet

PRLog (Press Release) - Jun 19, 2009 -
With 5 kids and a small-town dental practice in North Carolina, Dr. Mark Lassiter is no stranger to a hectic schedule. It only made sense to the Chapel Hill trained general dentist, who is also a singer-songwriter, to utilize the latest in technology to facilitate his first album production. With a passion for Rock music and a desire to make an album, Mark met the drummer from his favorite band, Collective Soul, on Myspace. Drummer Ryan Hoyle was starting a drum studio in Hollywood where he could record the drum tracks and send them to Mark via email link. Their collaboration brought in several of Rock music's most prolific players including Foo Fighters and The Wall Flowers keyboardist Rami Jaffee and legendary James Taylor bassist Leland Sklar. Mark admits, "It was a little unnerving at first, but they were all very complementary of my music and motivated to do a great job on their parts." In fact, Rami was so impressed with the title track from Living Past, he chose it to illustrate his life as a session player in a permanent video in the Los Angeles based Grammy Museum.
    Mark and the nearly 30 world-class musicians on Living Past, believe that the scope of the project from an independent musician in a rural town is unprecedented. Each of the 12 songs is played on by a combination of different musicians creating what is essentially 12 "e-garagebands." The song 10,000 Years, for instance, features Collective Soul drummer Ryan Hoyle, Foo Fighters keyboardist Rami Jaffee, Blind Melon bass player Brad Smith who also does backing vocals. Just a few short years ago, this collaboration would have not been possible but thanks to social networking, FTP servers which allow users to send huge files and companies such as www.sessionplayers.com, Mark was able to do the impossible: create a major label quality album featuring legendary Rock musicians from around the world without ever leaving Norwood, North Carolina.
    During the initial recording,  Foo Fighters and original The Wallflowers keyboardist Rami Jaffee sent Mark an email that the Grammy Museum producers wanted to do a video about him and his life as a session player. He emailed Mark that he would play to Mark's song Living Past during that video. Mark was able to fly out to L.A. and watch the video, over 2000 miles away, that featured his song and voice in a video about the worlds best session players and producers. "It was one of the most exciting moments of my life!", Mark says.
    Mark wrote nine of the twelve songs and produced the entire album from his dental office during lunch hour and at home in rural Norwood, North Carolina. The album is scheduled for release in July 2009 and will be available on CD Baby as well as all major digital download outlets such as iTunes and Napster.

Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/10262124/1