By Andy Stonehouse


Florida Guitarist returns for musical month in Vail Longtime Vail music fans will certainly recognize the sounds of Florida's Mark Zaden, an adaptable guitarist and songwriter who's been performing in town, off and on, since 1990. He returns for a month at the Club. by Andy Stonehouse One of the best-known of Vail's crop of young guitar entertainers has made his way back to town after a summer on the circuit, and he's looking forward to a month of doing what he does best.

Performer Mark Zaden, a regular on the local apres-ski and evening entertainment scene since 1990, will be doing his traditional solo thing at the Club in Vail Village, playing Tuesday through Saturday nights until the end of the month.

But make no mistake about it —Zaden may be the master of the Jagermeister-soaked, late-night guitar party (and he's certainly had plenty of practice at it), but his aspirations lie in creating his own material and eventually becoming an internationally-recognized performer.

"The whole point in me getting work at shows like this is so that I can play my music and get my music heard," Zaden said. "I don't care where I am, but I want to be recording my own material. I'm still trying to punch through the right channels and move ahead in my career."

To that end, Zaden already has on self-recorded CD, "Six is fine," and he'll be continuing work on a new recording after his stint in Vail.

Zaden, who was born in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., has spent many of his 32 years pursuing a career in music, working first in South Florida and then making his way to the mountains in 1990.

Influenced by a generation of pop-rock singer-songwriters like Neil Young, James Taylor and Jimmy Buffett plus the spacey lyrics and guitar of Jimi Hendrix, Zaden had established himself as a musician but was looking for something a bit different.

"I was living in Florida but decided to follow my sister out here when she moved out. I had my guitar with me, and when I arrived in town, I landed a job playing on the deck at Bart and Yeti's. After that, they told me to go home and get my stuff and come back... and I spent the next four years playing at the Hong Kong Café."

Zaden said his first years in Vail also opened up a world of opportunities as a musician at other resorts settings, filling in for local friends with shows at South Carolina's Hilton Head Island, the Bahamas or even St. Croix, "I was just lucky to make the move out here and get work. But I got the bug. And once I met guys like Phil Long, I knew that was something that I would like to do."

But all those years of playing and partying eventually grew a bit stale and Zaden decided to take a shot at the big time, relocating to New York City. There he became a regular on the Greenwich Village music scene, playing at spots like the Bitter End, CB's Gallery and the Back Fence, with the experience adding a whole new element to his own music.

"When I left Vail to go to New York, I felt I had done what I'd come to Vail to do and that I was at the peak of my performance."

Kicking around the Big Apple for a few years, Zaden eventually had enough material to record his own CD, and began work in Aug. 1997 at a New York studio called the Basement. Zaden and his friend and producer Nunzio Signore spent the next year putting the pieces together for "Six is Fine," and the result is a pretty clear picture of Zaden's own singer-songwriter directions,

That CD helped Zaden land a spot as the featured artist on Direct TV's unsigned artist program on its Music Choice music service, exposing him to a potential audience of over 10 million satellite subscribers across the entire country.

In the meantime, Zaden continues his hard work at the musical game injecting as much of his own material into his shows.

"I actually get to do my own stuff a great deal. I try to do about an hour of originals a night, and sometimes I just do a straight set of my own stuff. It just depends on how I feel. But if people are yelling for 'Brown Eyed Girl,' I'll still do that. And then I'll try to follow with some obscure covers, and eventually work my way back to my own stuff."

Zaden can be found doing his stuff at the Club at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday until Sept. 25.

To contact Zaden, email markzaden@msn.com
Visit him at www.markzaden.com

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