Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Williams.
Hi Mark, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Ray Lewis had been promoting shows in Jacksonville and throughout Florida for years. As a musician I was happy to get to perform in some of them. About 13 years ago Ray was looking for a new place to open up a listening room in Jacksonville, for mainly acoustic music. A place where you could come and hear various national and international artists in an intimate setting with the feel of a concert, not a bar scene. He was lucky to find Mudville Grille which is owned by Louis Joseph. Mudville had two rooms, the main bar and restaurant on one side and a spacious events’ room. Ray built a stage brought in a sound system and called it Mudville Music Room, We currently call it Mudville Listening Room. The first artist he booked for his inaugural event was Randall Bramblett who had been in such bands as The Allman Brothers. He asked if I would open the show. And it took off from there. Over the next ten years Ray brought in wonderful artists from as far away as Scotland and San Francisco. He occasionally produced shows featuring local artists such as Mike Shackelford and myself.
Around 2023 Ray decided to retire and he asked some of the local musicians and others if they wanted to take over the room. Most musicians know how much work and time it takes to book artists, promote the shows and take care of the sound. I had helped Ray on numerous shows setting up and tearing down the sound system and running the sound. No one wanted the job. I wasn’t interested at first. I knew if I took the reins I wouldn’t be able to perform as much with my band, MoonStalker, since I would need to dedicate so much time to the Listening Room. After a few weeks of mulling things over and talking with my wife and music partner Geej we decided to take on the responsibility. There are very few true listening rooms in Jacksonville and we didn’t want this one to disappear. It is a great space, intimate yet spacious and we felt it would best serve the community of musicians and all the people who enjoy live music to keep it going. So with Geej’s help I took over from Ray. We put a lot of work into expanding the promotion, chanced the name to The Listening Room, and started a once a month open mic. We now feature some of the best local artists on our stage while continuing to bring in fabulous traveling musicians such as Admiral Radio, Walter Parks, John Cowan, Tannahill Weavers and Madam Radar. We often put on songwriter nights which have been very successful. In the first year of producing shows I was able to find a top notch sound man, Nate Cimmino who has put together one of the best sound systems around. He along with Geej, who helps with design and promotion, have been a big part of our success. I must also mention our volunteer Jim Hughes, and the great wait staff at Mudville and the support of the owner Louis. The listening room also has jazz shows on Monday nights and The Blues Society has shows about once a month.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The hardest part has been trying to build an audience. Ray had a mailing list but it wasn’t generating the numbers we needed. Our mailing list is growing. Big name artists often bring in a large crowd. We are usually assured that when someone like Mike Shackelford, or John Cowan perform we will have a full house. When we produce shows with artists who don’t have big name recognition, even though the performers are on a high level of artistry we have to push extra hard to bring in the audience they deserve. What we do at Mudville Listening room is make sure that every show is at a high professional quality so even if you don’t know the artist’s name you will know that the show is going to be good. The other difficult aspect of producing shows is trying to balance my own time as a performer. My band MoonStalker ( Arvid Smith the local legendary guitarist, sitar and steel guitar player, Roy Peak on bass, Ken Anoff on drums and Geej on guitar, percussion and vocals) would like to play more often so it gets a little tough balancing it all out.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
So my reasons for doing the work at the Listening Room is based on the fact that I am a singer/songwriter. I have been writing songs and performing since I was 15. In my late teens early 20s I played in northeastern Pennsylvania. Along with my band The Last Surviving Buffalo Band I would record a 45 minute set of original songs for the show “Homegrown Music” on WVIA radio.
I have 4 albums – Mark Williams “Ghost of Eden” which came out in 2004 and was partially made possible from a grant from the Community Foundation of Jacksonville and the J. Shepard, Jr. and Mary Ann Bryan Arts Endowment.
Mark Williams and Blue Horse “Out Past the Moon”
Mark Williams and Blue Horse “From Earth and Broken Sky”
Mark Williams and MoonStalker “Shadows in Blue” which came out in 2025.
I lived and performed in NYC for a number of years where I was in a band called Kat Lane and the Spike Heel Feel. It was a great time to be playing in NYC clubs. I wrote music for an Off -Broadway show the first year I moved to the city. At some point someone heard me playing in a club one night and asked me to write music for a fashion video they were shooting. It went on to win some awards. That experience opened another door and I started writing music for industrial films. I also composed music for a short film which starred Wallace Shawn.
When I moved to Jacksonville in the mid 1990s My then wife and I had concert/shows in our home. We would present a mix of slam poets, musicians, scenes from plays and dancers all in one night. And at every performance we would have different painters display their work. We would get about 75 guests per show. During our first production I met Al Letson (radio host on NPR). He did some slam poetry that night (he was considered one of the top slam poets in the country). I was performing with a trio that night and after the show Al and I started talking. He was writing a play “Essential Personnel” and asked if I would be interested in working on the music for it. We ended up performing the show Off-Broadway in NYC, and in various other cities.
Since then I have been playing music all over, from Jacksonville, FL to the Philippines., with MoonStalker and as a solo artist.
What does success mean to you?
The old cliche – Doing what makes you happy. It’s great that what I do also seems to make others happy too..
Pricing:
- ticket prices range from $20 to $35
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.moonstalkermusic.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mudvillelisteningroom
