Mark May

By: Bill Kolter - Oct 2002
President, Chaindawg Records, Inc.
For The Blues Site

Texas may have produced more great unsung blues guitarists than any
state in the nation. Mason Ruffner and Chris Duarte come immediately
to mind as virtuosos who have labored in relative obscurity for years.
Maybe it's the stiff competition that makes it so hard to break out of the
Lone Star State. Had David Bowie and Jackson Browne not
championed Stevie Ray Vaughan, he might never have transcended
the Austin blues scene. It appears that, in order to break out from the
blues pack these days, an artist must either be a teenage wunderkind
or have the help of an industry insider to grease the wheels.

If a guitarist was ever worthy of such greasing, it's Houston's Mark May,
the best guitarist you've never heard of, and arguably the most versatile
talent working the blues today. He lets fly on his third album, "Doll
Maker," the follow-up to 1997's brilliant "Telephone Road." Don't think
Mark's been idle during the interval; he spent two productive years
touring as Dickey Betts's guitarist.