“She thinks intuition is a feeling in her gut / What we got tired of waiting for she’ll never have enough”
Mark Geary – “Suzanne”
I can’t get enough of Mark Geary. From first listen, his 33 1/3 Grand Street has been a fixture in my three-CD disc changer, and it’s not going anywhere any time soon. Released at the end of 2002 on Gill Holland’s sonaBLAST! Records,, the record paints a picture of the Irish-born singer/songwriter, as he reels you into his world, giving you just a hint of his world — vague enough to make you want to learn more.
What have I learned? Mark Geary’s torn between his homes in Ireland and New York City (having made the trip across the Atlantic around a decade ago with nothing but $100 and a green card), he has loved and lost, and God has been watching from above every step of the way.
What do I know? 33 1/3 Grand Street is a debut album well worth the wait, from an artist that started out playing shows with Jeff Buckley after he first arrived in the East Village, and has been opening for everyone from Elvis Costello to Coldplay and Billy Bragg for years.
The internal conflict between leaving Ireland and coming to New York seems to be the most prevalent them on the album, hinted at in the fabulous opening track “Gingerman”, and throughout the record in “Obi’s Chair”, “Not Like Home” and “America”. The strongest song, though, is probably “Suzanne” — a love song, perhaps? — where Geary’s voice shows what it’s made of.
