A wealth of talent Mark Renburke calls on the best for his new disc BY BOB GULLA

‘When I started this project last summer, it was all about the songs," says Mark Renburke of his self-titled debut. "I decided to record the ones I’d been playing live for the past few years and was pretty happy with composition-wise." But Renburke didn’t have a band together and he knew he didn’t want to do that Lenny Kravitz thing and lay down all the instruments by himself. "That kind of thing makes the production stale and lifeless," he says. "The CD was supposed to be mixed-genre, and to make each song the best I could I’d need to involve outside players."

So Renburke did what someone in, say, Nashville or NYC would do — he reached out to some of the city’s best "session players." "That’s when I started to realize what a wealth of talent there was around here locally," he says, "and how certain songs would be better realized by getting that talent involved."

Renburke had a few musicians in mind that he’d met over the past few years. Bob "Guido" Decurtis (tenor sax), singer-songwriter Dave Dill (guitar), and John Larson from the Marlowes (backing vocals) were all invited to contribute. "In some cases, I just got lucky and the sound engineer I was working with knew just the right person. Chuck Ladoucer at Red Dog Studio was really helpful with that, and I recorded and mixed about half the album with him." Chuck hooked Renburke up with drummer Shawn Leonard from Stefan Couture’s band and Dan Pepin, who did that "Cars meets Van Halen guitar lead on ‘Screwed Down.’

"Two duos I had a great time working with were Otis Read and Phil Edmonds and Atwater-Donnelly. My love of folk and Celtic music drew me to them, and they were so helpful and professional." Edmonds nailed his whistle track in just one take, and Aubrey and Elwood were recorded on location at their house in Foster. "I was thrilled that in both these cases the vision I had for the songs was beyond what I expected."

Several members of Renburke’s live band also contributed to the disc, including some smooth fretless bass by Seth Forden, a splash of dobro from Barry Wenskowicz, and some solid drumming from Lon Gelade.

One other moment of serendipity occurred. Near the end of the project, Renburke hit a wall with a bass part he recorded for "Screwed Down." The song, partially inspired by the band Material Issue, gave him an idea. "I thought why not try to get bassist Ted Ansani, the Material Issue bass player, to do it?" Can’t hurt to ask, right? "I met the guy about 12 years ago after one of his shows, but he didn’t know me from Adam," Mark explains. "When I got in touch with him, he was very cool about working with me, and did a fantastic bass part from his home studio [in Chicago], plus great vocal harmonies on that song and another. And so goes my brush with one of my rock idols! Every starving artist should be lucky enough to have that happen at least once in their life."

Not everything fell into such a magical place, though. On a few occasions, after months of correspondence and arranging, Renburke had to scrap plans for targeted collaborations, which is one reason the project took as long as it did. "If things fell through I’d have to start over and look for a new player," he says. "I had to cut two songs from the project because I realized the concept wasn’t going to happen in time."

After all is said and done, Renburke’s resulting album, a triumph of collaboration and communal musical resourcefulness, is stunning for its incredible array of styles, if not for its vast ambition. It covers everything from pop and rock to Celtic and contemporary folk. "At one point I realized I was dividing the album into two halves," he says, "one rock and pop half and one half that had a folk, Celtic, and roots feel. Then it hit me. Why not just make it a double EP?"

Renburke has already received one bit of good news: the independent label Not Lame wants to carry his CD.

Stefan Couture and the Campfire Orchestra and Dirty Hands (Pepin’s other band) will help Renburke celebrate his CD release on Saturday, April 23 at at 9:30 p.m. at the Century Lounge. Go to www.markrenburke.com for more details.

Wandering Eye. Diane Blue and her band are at the Hi-Hat tonight (Thursday the 21st) from 8 p.m. to midnight. On Friday (the 22nd), Young Rust, a band specializing in high-energy renditions of songs by Mr. Neil Young, will take the stage at Cats. Also On Friday at the Rocky Point Pub, Train Of Thought and Sulfer play to what will likely be a wildly enthusiastic rocker crowd. Willie Myette’s immense jazz project Katahdin’s Edge plays the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River on Friday. Call (508) 324-1926.

The return of the Fabulous Itchies looms on the horizon. They’ll be doing a special weekend of events with friends including Friday night at the Custom House Tavern, where the Wyld Card DJs spin with special guest DJs Josh Styles and DJ Peppermint Patty from NYC. Expect lots of ’60s garage, go-go, soul, and freakbeat. Then on Saturday (the 23rd), the Itchies return with a whole new show. The Stalkers will play their poundin’ NYC garage rock in the opening slot. Both events are free.

Midnight Creeps will be back at the Green Room this Friday. The show will mark the area debut of their new drummer C.J. Creep and serves as a warm-up show for their European tour in May. The lineup also includes the Spitzz, Big World, and the Ghouls.

Smokestack Lightnin’ is doing a show at the Call on Saturday. They’ll share the stage with the Howl, featuring Troy Gonyea, who recently left the Fabulous Thunderbirds to form this band. Check it out at www.churchof thehowl.com.

Cirque Du Singe Brisé (Circus of the Shattered Monkey) returns to AS220 (115 Empire Street, Providence) on Sunday (the 24th) at 7 p.m. Esteemed Providence locals Allysen Callery, Mary Bue, and JJ Baron are on the bill, with instrumental avant-garde guitar work from Erik Wohlgemuth. This will be the last weekend show at AS220 before they close for renovations. The Circus will be held at Tazza starting on May 19 until AS220 reopens.

E-mail me with your music news at big.daddy1@cox.net.