By Amber Shaffer, SDAM Staff Writer
©Copyright 2024 SDAM.com/Amber Shaffer

I'm going to give it up to anyone who can get a Casbah crowd to join them in not one, but TWO bar sing-a-longs. And coyote yelping. Yes, what I say is true: the black and red walls of the Casbah were echoing with the sounds of music connoisseurs impersonating coyotes and singing songs about "doing the nasty." Strange things happen at The Casbah on Monday nights. At least when Mark Growden brings his solo act down from Oakland, they do. And judging by the story he jokingly spun at the end of the night about what a good time some of the Casbah staff showed him last time he played there, I think it's safe to assume there's always strange and fun(ny) things happening when Mr. Growden's in the room.     Growden is a very creative musician, but even more important, he's a great entertainer. His skill lies in his ability to pull...actually, rope would be more appropriate, you in. He had the audience hanging on every word sung from his mouth. Even the ones we knew were coming because of the rhyming schema. I still couldn't wait to hear him say it. And oh how he teased us every once in a while, holding a note or pausing just a wee bit longer before he gave us what we wanted.     Growden's voice is strong and bluesy (except when he was coughing up a lung because he smoked too much before the show), his instruments are fun (banjo, accordion, and some sort of lap steel guitar contraption) and well used (I've never seen someone sing into the back opening of their banjo). Plus I loved his songs ‚ such great storytelling. His set began with more serious material, where the tone of his voice and how he played/used his instruments were the focus. Then he began to interact with the audience a bit more, slipping nicely from pure musician to entertainer as well. He sung the tale of Crazy Davey (and we sang it back to him), a poor fellow who survived two life-threatening accidents in a single day but now has the mind of a child and is as happy, loving and carefree as can be. He sang a response to Aretha Franklin's "I Never Loved A Man (The Way That I Loved You)" as if he were the lover she spoke of. And he closed the evening with a couple hilariously raunchy tales of being somebody's f**kboy and how much he loved "doing the nasty with you," of which he went into glorious detail.     I'm proud to say my band Secret Apollo was able to open for Mark Growden and I hope he visits our city again soon. For more info on Mark Growden, visit www.markgrowden.com.