SheilaMark Band & Great Swamp Blues Band: official website
Welcome to the homepage of SheilaMark Productions, Sheila Stratton and Mark Hamza.
We are proud to announce that our EP's will be available on CD Baby and also digital sales in the near future. Mark Hamza's Great Swamp Blues Band, "Come Together" and SheilaMark Blues Band "A Presence of the Blues".
Mark Hamza, an extremely talented performer and lifelong musician is the co-director of the production company.
Sheila Stratton, is a vocalist and also the co-director, who has been compared to Etta James, Joanie Mitchell, and Joan Baez. Our goal is to assist in whatever way needed to promote music and the arts in Pennsylvania and beyond.
Mark Hamza has been playing accordion since he was 8 years old. His father, who played by ear, inspired him to play. As he grew up, he learned European music, then American music. His last teacher gave him a solid foundation in the American songbook. He played in restaurants and weddings on his way through college, and graduated with a BSChE from Newark College of Engineering. At that time, he also started playing Hammond organ, learning to play bass lines with his feet.
A full time musician since 1971, he landed an organ gig in the Poconos in a Pennsylvania resort band in 1972 and moved there. The Poconos are a musician-friendly area with a wonderful support network. He occasionally went on the road with different bands. In the 70’s, it was with “The Happenings” where he learned analog multi-keyboards. In the 90’s it was with the “Clarence Spady Band” where he honed his blues chops on Hammond organ. His Hammond is a highly modified A-100 that has a separate channel for the bass pedals, among other things. He supervised the customization at Organ Service Co. of New Jersey with design input from Trek II Products. The bass pedals have their own amp and speaker. His accordion is a hand made Sano that also is stereo. He concentrated on using the accordion in non-traditional ways. He has played with singer-songwriters through the 80’s, 90’s, and the 2000s. He played accordion and organ on Eric Anderson’s “Ghosts Upon The Road” album, and played on a number of Richard Shindell and Richard Meyer albums.
He also played in a Zydeco band in the 90’s. He is currently playing with Howard Parker and the Hot Take Out Band. He is still playing with Clarence Spady. He also uses the accordion to “sit-in” with various musicians and bands like Phil Woods, Johnny Coates, Al Cohn, Spencer Reed, and many others.
His current band, The Great Swamp Blues Band, consists of Hammond organ, Saxophone, Trombone, and Drums. The band plays a combination of cover songs and originals that reside on the “Jazzy side of the Blues.” In 2007, Mark released his “Great Swamp Blues Band” album.
Sheila performs as singer for a new group, SheilaMark Blues Band. This is a Hammond organ driven, female fronted band. We do Blues, Rock, Zydeco and many popular songs of the day and yesterday. There are many samples of the bands on the music tab of this website. We also have a duo called the SheilaMark Duo. Mark Hamza is the accordion player for our new group. We play and sing great songs from many eras that include the 30, 40, 50's and also some songs from Rock and Blues to Jazz.
Sheila Stratton is a performer who has performed with such great Celtic artists as Brendan Nolan, Beth Patterson, Seamus Kennedy, Kindred, The Leftovers, The Wildes and The Lochside Celtic Band. Sheila has recorded and produced a CD for her group Iad Fein. The name of the CD is "Celtic Song and Story" The CD is available on CD baby and locally at The Tara Shoppe and the Dublin House in Buffalo, NY. The CD has been played on the Thistle and Shamrock show called Celtic Kalidescope, hosted by Bill Raffel on WBUF, 98.7 FM. The cover art and production for the CD was done by Sheila and David St. Onge. The songs were produced by David Meyer (Kindred) in his BorB studio. Some have said that she has the voice of an angel in her rendition of John Riley with the group Iad Fein, one of the tracks that are on the CD. There have been many performances at festivals. Fort Erie Celtic Festival, Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, The Niagara Celtic Heritage Festival and Highland Games in Olcott, NY, The Amherst Scottish Festival, The Rochester Irish Festival, The Buffalo Riverfest, and the Dayton Celtic Festival in Dayton, OH. We are scheduled for many of them, more on that in the future. Notably, the Niagara Celtic Heritage Festival in Olcott, NY on September 16 & 17, 2006 was one of the best festivals of the year. It was its 6th year and it really kicked butt with attendence and the entertainment that was provided at the event was outstanding. The sound production by Lakeside Sound (Tom Keefer) was the best for any event in which I have performed in this year. I was asked to be a spokeperson for the festival and entertained on local cable tv, one of my signature songs, Siuil A Ruin. A song that is both in Irish and English about a lost love and war.
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