Artist of the Month: Cory Marks
If you’re in North Bay and see a Cessna 150L or Yak-52 flying above… it might be country/rocker Cory Marks! When he’s not putting his private pilot license to use or making music, you can catch him on the ice playing hockey. Fun fact: Marks (legally Marquardt) is also the younger brother of professional hockey player Matt!
Unlike many artists, Marks hasn’t dreamt of a music career his whole life. It wasn’t until he was at a bar during his college years that friends encouraged him to sing for the first time publicly. Since then, he’s had the opportunity to tour with Toby Keith, Five Finger Death Punch, ZZ Top, Travis Tritt, and Brantley Gilbert. More recently, you may have seen him last year when he went on Aaron Pritchett’s cross-Canada tour, “Liquored Up”. A personal highlight of that show was the cover Mark did of Shaggy’s “Boombastic” and a Rush guitar compilation. He doesn’t just sing the lyrics of the songs – he feels them!
Marks recently completed the U.S. tour “Unplugged” as an opener for multi-platinum rock group Theory of a Deadman. During that run, he performed “(Make My) Country Rock”, which came out this summer. It reached #1 on Active Rock Radio in the U.S! The song also features Sully Erna of Godsmack, Travis Tritt and Mick Mars of Motley Crue.
Recently, he released “Fast As I Can”, which is an exciting, fun country song with a foot-stomping chorus, and “Whiskey For Sale”, which is a blend of bluegrass, country and heavy rock. It can be described as “narrating a love story that’s taken a turn for the worse.” These songs are featured on his second full-length album, “Sorry For Nothing”, which was released on December 6th.
Having received over 220 million global streams, achieving platinum-selling status, a Canadian Country Music Award nomination and performing at over 25 major festivals, it will be interesting to see what’s in his future.
www.facebook.com/corymarksmusic
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By Alexa @alexascountryparty