Mark Bluhm

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Mark Bluhm is a long-time bass player - a fixture on the Cleveland scene as a key rhythm section member of a number of bands that probably entertained many of our readers in their high school years and beyond. A long time special education teacher in Cleveland Heights and, later, Lakewood, Mark NEVER strayed far from music -  even, for a time, working in the business as an A&R man for a couple of the major labels.

Bluhm was playing in a popular Rolling Stones tribute band when, feeling restless after years of playing other people's music, he had begun to yearn for something different - all those years, he'd been writing, but never had a chance to realize his material. Casting about, he stumbled across a Craigslist post looking for a bass player interested in playing in an original band. The source of the ad was Lakewood guitarist Bill Rouse, who had been looking to team up with drummer Paul Nickels and singer Tim Pursifull to write and deliver his own originals. Meetings were arranged, and a musical relationship that has lasted a decade was launched.

Bluhm and Nickels comprised the rhythm sections of both Inner Ring Conspiracy and The Clifton Beat, and write he did - the bands each made a record and roughly half the contributions coming from Bluhm. Today, Nickels and Bluhm continue to work together as the rhythm section of the Old Brown Shoe Revue.

With live music on hold thanks to the coronavirus, Bluhm turned his attention to “Curmudgeon," his long anticipated solo album during 2020, and released in in November of that year. The record features 14 songs, 12 of them Bluhm originals. It's terrific - and available for download on all streaming platforms as well as a hard CD at the Handsome Store.

"Curmudgeon," by Mark Bluhm.

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