It seems like folks have nothing but good things to say about Mark Cosgrove. Jim Baggett, owner of Mass. St. Music, said "Man, that guy is a wonderful guitar player!". National fingerstyle champ Rolly Brown says "When Mark starts playing, the music comes rolling out of that big guitar like a bulldozer." After taking 2nd place at the 1994 and 1st at the 1995 Flatpicking Championships in Winfield, the buzz around the campfire was that Cosgrove was a very deserving recipient of the prize. No doubt about it, Mark Cosgrove can really play and he somehow projects a friendly attitude at the same time.

Cosgrove first competed at Winfield in 1987 and didn't place. Using the experience as a learning opportunity, he realized he needed to focus a little less on improvising and more on arranging. The focus was obviously succesful because when he returned to competition in 1994 at the Doc Watson Guitar Championship at MerleFest, he took 1st place. Later that year, back in Winfield, he won a very credible second place. The following year, Mark reached the pinnacle in flatpicking contests when he took first place at Winfield.

Although he's made a mark at contests, Cosgrove is a seasoned and well-rounded musician. At 40 years old, he has been playing guitar about 25 years and started right off with a flatpick. "I had a teacher who was a good steady musician and got me started with a flatpick. I was playing all sorts of music, though, including electric guitar." Cosgrove actually spent a good deal of his younger years playing electric guitar in country swing bands. "It wasn't until the early 80s that I hooked up with the Lewis Brothers, a real good bluegrass band out of Philadelphia, that I really started playing bluegrass." Mark cites the usual influences, "Doc, Dan, Clarence. Also, David Bromberg was one of my first acoustic guitar influences." He now does mostly solo or freelance gigs, but does have a loose band in progress, with Tony Trischka occasionally guesting on banjo.

Contest playing provided Mark with his two main guitar, a Collings D2H that he won at Winfield in 1995 and a Gallagher Doc Watson model he won at Merlefest in 1994. For sound reinforcement he uses a Fishman Matrix pickup with a Rane blender. "That's a real good system for concert situations. Sometimes in clubs it's tough because it has a tendency to feed back if you try to get too much gain out of it." Even though the Collings and the Gallagher are Cosgrove's main guitars, he says "my favorite guitar, probably, is the guitar I used to win Winfield. It's a LoPrinzi that my mother gave me when I was 17 years old. I don't take it out very much anymore. Mark uses a fairly high action because "I hit the guitar pretty hard. I can't have it too low or it just won't ring." He uses tortoise picks that he makes from shell a friend finds washed up on the beach. For strings, he uses John Pearse medium.

When practicing, Cosgrove works on arrangements of tunes and tunes he's learning. "I'm a pretty good improviser, but after the first time at Winfield, I realized I needed to work more on coming up with set arrangements, or at least arrangements where I had an idea of what I was going to do, instead of just blowing through the changes." He practices several times a day for 5-20 minutes as time allows. "You're not going to get good because you have to practice and it's time for your lesson or something. You'll get good when you want to practice, because you want to hear your guitar, and you're bitten by the bug."

With one CD out and two major contest wins under his belt, Mark's plans for the future include more of the same. He's playing several gigs with fellow Winfield champion, fingerstylist Rolly Brown, booking gigs with his bluegrass band, doing solo gigs, and teaching students. He also has a section in the upcoming Mel Bay book "Winfield Flatpicking Champions" and will soon be featured in a Mel Bay instructional book/CD combination.

"Good Medicine" is Mark Cosgrove's first CD. Recorded in 1994, it features Mark on guitar, mandolin and vocals, Tony Trishka on banjo, Barry Mitterhoff on mandolin, John Toney on bass, and Mark Arrington on fiddle, with other guests on some cuts. Two of the 11 songs are Cosgrove-penned and 3 are vocals. The rest range from standards to little known picking vehicles. As with most first outings, this one has a few quirks, most noticeably a bass-heavy mix. This is particularly noticeable on the first bass note of the first cut. After a bit, though, your ear will adjust and Mark Cosgrove's excellent guitar playing will shine through. Cosgrove has great tone, tremendous speed, and most importantly, his own licks. He doesn't really sound like anybody I can think of off-hand. His licks are pretty impressive, but the melody always maintains the upper shelf.

The tunes I particularly enjoyed included a Latin-ized version of "Ragtime Annie", "Bye Bye Blues", Merle Watson's "Interstate Rag", and Cosgrove's own "Good Medicine". I also liked his vocals- he sings in a relaxed style that matches his material. The versions of "Bye Bye Blues" (tabbed out in this issue - see the next page), "Alabama Jubilee", and "Interstate Rag" are very close to Mark's contest arrangements, providing a good source of reference for aspiring contestants. As to be expected with musicians of their caliber, the non-guitar support is excellent.

Overall, this album is highly recommended, especially to guitarists looking to expand their listening horizons. Mark doesn't sound like the "same ol', same ol'" and introduces hot flatpicking to some contemporary musics. Hopefully, his next album will have the mixing bugs worked out, but don't let that stop you from getting this one.

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