Mark Sh

Mark was born in Orlando Florida & around the age of 5 his family moved to the Canal Zone Panama. It was there that his mother got Mark interested in music. She played the organ but couldn’t co-ordinate two hands & two feet AND sing. So she would teach Mark the lyrics & he would sing so she could sing along. That was the big start in the music biz. Then Mark later did a show in elementary school playing an autoharp & loved it since it was like his brother’s guitar but sounded even better. So Mark’s brother & Dad got an autoharp for his birthday or X-mas, he doesn’t remember which. His family moved to Ocala for the last time in 1971 & after high school the same brother got Mark in touch with a fellow who built guitars & Mark got his first guitar. He then came down with mono & was in bed for around 6 months & so spent a lot of time playing. Two weeks after Mark got out of bed he got married ( which didn’t work out too well ). He had been playing tennis seriously since his sophomore year in high school & starting teaching professionally the summer after graduating, which gave a big help to coming down with mono. Mark then attended Central Florida Community College in Ocala to study music in 1979 & the next year started performing professionally around the area ( Gainesville-Ocala-Bellview ). In 1981 Mark transferred to Belmont College in Nashville & then in the December of 1984 moved to Memphis where he started performing again full-time. In 1990 he returned to Ocala minus a spouse & continued performing & working as a tennis teaching pro & racket stringer at various stores around Orlando. It was in Lake Eola park in Orlando that Mark started meeting some great friends/musicians & with Donna Shaffer on soprano vocals & harmonica Folkstone was reformed, which originally started in Memphis in the late 80’s. The next year Ken Russman joined the group on vocals/guitar & keys. Then about a year later Bill Wuerfel joind the group on vocals & percussion. Several years later by happenstance Mark met Jerome Robinson who is an incredible musician & a very good friend & they’ve been working together now for a lot longer than either care to think about. Mark also has been learning Hungarian & French along with learning how to say “I’m hungry” in every language on the planet. He’s up to around 30 languages so far.

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