By Brian Zanzonico
"It was more relief than anything," he said. "It's great to have and I'm proud of it, but after so much time and effort, it was kind of anti-climactic. But, man, I do like how it sounds."
After four years of false starts, rearrangements and near constant editing, Markus released "The View from the Side of the Road" on his independent label Treble-G Records earlier this year. He has attracted a following on the Long Island music circuit and has been called one of Long Island's best musicians by one large publication and folk music's version of author Alexander Dumas by another. He receives national television exposure every Groundhog Day when he performs his song "The Ballad of Malverne Mel," an ode to the village's very own weather prognosticator.
Now 40, Markus has mellowed. He said "The View from the Side of the Road" is a departure from his first effort, "Not the Only One Who Feels This Way," a collection of songs about "an angry young man." He calls his latest - inspired by Billy Joel, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Jethro Tull, and Ani DiFranco - a concept album about a young philosopher.
"It's about things I've thought about or observed," he said. "Things that stick in my mind."
The title track is about going through life with tunnel vision, and not taking time to notice the little things. He was inspired in the oddest of places - bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Southern State Parkway.
"I looked up for a moment and didn't know where I was," he said. "I was lost in thought. I realized I spent so much time looking ahead that I never took in the scenery."
Which is what led him to pursue a musical career full time. Born in upstate Rochester, Markus was given his first guitar by his grandparents at age 8 and studied at the Eastman School of Music in high school. While majoring in communications at the University of Pennsylvania, he went on to serve as arranger and director of the a-cappella group Chord-on-Blues. He lived in Brooklyn briefly before settling in Malverne in the mid 1990s, where he worked as a journalist for the now defunct Malverne Times and West Hempstead Life and Long Island Business News. After several unfilling years, Markus reached a crossroads. He wanted to take his music career to the next level. He quit journalism to focus solely on his art.
He was pleasantly surprised to find there was not a lack of work. Nursing homes, coffee shops, restaurants, bars, private parties, all in need of entertainment. Performing in covers from the 1930s to the present and his own original compositions, Markus was in demand. And he had a knack for promotion. Markus organized the Malverne Songwriter Festival in 1998, the Thanksgiving Benefit Concert that marked the debut of Huntington's Song Box in 1999, and a concert to help rebuild the Broadway Beanery, a well-known Lynbrook coffee house and music venue that was destroyed by fire in 2001.
After September 11, he stopped performing one of his favorite covers, Joel's "Miami 2017," a song about the destruction of New York City. He thought it would be an eerie, inappropriate reminder of the thousands of deaths inside Manhattan's twin towers. But then he saw Joel give a rousing, heartfelt rendition of "Miami 2017" at the Concert for New York and put it back on his playlist.
"It had become an anthem of defiance," Markus said of the song, which made its way on to "The View from the Side of the Road."
He's got a career as a professional musician and a 13-song CD. Now he's looking for a distributor. Markus is hoping his CD, which is available for purchase at all his appearances, makes its way into the hands of someone from a major label.
For more information about Markus, visit www.stuartmarkus.com
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