SheilaMark Band & Great Swamp Band: official website
Welcome to the homepage of SheilaMark Productions, Sheila Stratton and Mark Hamza.
This is also the homepage for SheilaMark Band, Great Swamp Band, SheilaMark Duo/Trio , solo accordion for Mark Hamza and Mark Hamza and the Apple Strudel Gang..We are proud to announce that our EP's are available on CD Baby and also digital sales in the near future. Mark Hamza's Great Swamp Band, "Come Together" and SheilaMark Band "A Presence of the Blues". You can also hear the music on Itunes and other digital services.
Mark Hamza, an extremely talented performer and lifelong musician. Sheila Stratton, is a vocalist who's singing voice has been compared to Etta James, KoKo Taylor, Big Mama Thornton and Janis Joplin.
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 also uses the accordion to “sit-in” with various musicians and bands like Phil Woods, Johnny Coates, Al Cohn, Spencer Reed, and many others.
One of his current bands, The Great Swamp 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 and he has a CD called "Come Together".
Sheila performs as singer for the band, SheilaMark 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, Blues, Jazz and Zydeco. We have wonderful performers in this band. We have a rub board player who has played with the Neville Brothers and the Radiators when he was living in New Orleans. Mark has performed in New Orleans as well and is really great on Zydeco accordion and has composed his own song called "Zydeco Cheesecake"
SheilaMark Duo are experienced musicians who perform at senior facilities, restaurants and coffeehouses. Sheila is a vocalist and Mark accompanies her on accordion. The mix of music we perform include polkas, waltzes, tangos, songs from the 1920’s-1970’s, show tunes and songs from the movies with an emphasis on the time of year that we are entertaining.
Mark Hamza and the Apple Strudel Gang are a great German Ompah band with strong performances by Mark on accordion, Sheila on vocals and boombas, clarinet, trombone, tuba and trumpet. They perform wonderful songs of the present day German genre and great tunes from the Rheingold orchestra song book from pre World War II Germany. Many performances for biergartens and Oktoberfest in both a festival and smaller setting. Mark and Sheila also do a duo of German music for smaller venues.
Sheila Stratton as a Celtic 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 in Buffalo, NY at The Tara Shoppe and the Dublin House in Buffalo, NY. The CD has been played on the Thistle and Shamrock show called Celtic Kaleidescope, 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 attendance 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 spokesperson 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.
Sheila now is performing in many genres of music. Blues, Jazz, Popular, Celtic, Cajun/Zydeco.....whatever is needed. SheilaMark Blues Band and SheilaMark Duo/Trio are her passions. We perform at coffeehouses, restaurants, pubs and festivals all over the Northeast.
Check out our Youtube, Facebook and also gigmasters for all that we are up too! Hope to see you soon.....
Look at our Calender here!
