30 Mark Wenner on The Nighthawks, Performing, Recording, and Rock & Roll
Mark Wenner and his band The Nighthawks have been performing and recording for over 40 years. He did this with and along side an impressive list of blues and R & B note-worthies. Mark came up as a young man when rock & roll was perceived by older adults as the devil’s music. It was a time, he notes, when when Elvis was in army, Jerry Lewis was banned, Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran were dead, Little Richard was immersed in church, Ray Charles was in jail, and Gene Vincent was crippled. It was at this time that Mark sensed a conspiracy of sorts, as radio began to market the likes of Fabian and Frankie Avalon. Older people hated rock & roll, and teachers would yell about its ills for an entire periods, Mark recalls. His response? He'd venture without the permission of his parents to DC's Howard Theater. Here he'd see The Motown Review, Otis Redding, James Brown and Marvin Gaye mentor Billy Stewart. It's no wonder that he fell in love with music, learned to play harp, and formed The Nighthawks in 1972.
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SHOW NOTESNighthawks music on CD Baby
Nighthawks music on iTunes
Nighthawks.com
Michael Streissguth
Nighthawks on the Blue Highway documentary website
Nighthawks on the Blue Highway DVD
The Howard Theater
EllerSoul Records
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