Carolyn Mark

The selling point of the album-the selling point of any Carolyn Mark album, actually- is her remarkable voice. She's a passionate vocalist with a tone that at times recalls latter day Emmylou Harris (the way she opens up "2nd Time" recalls the Red Dirt Girl's recent output), a great sense of phrasing, and impressive range, and the ability to turn an emotion at the flip of a dime. That Mark remains in fine, fine vocal form isn't a surprise to any of those who have been listening to her or her collaboration with Neko Case over the years. - Pop Matters

Let's Just Stay Here is filled with songs of love and loss with ample references to Canada along the way, tracks like "The 2nd Time", "Officer Down", and "Canada Day Off/Toronto" which namedrop the CBC and related programming. Mark and company have forged a solid path in the Canadian conscience. - Chart Attack

There's a dusty, well-worn quality to the music found on Carolyn Mark and NA Arbuckle's Let's Just Stay Here. Infused with a sort of honky-tonk simplicity that isn't quite alt-rock and isn't quite country, the record rolls through 12 songs of truck-stop-ready music that calls to mind visions of lonely, weathered men and fading, weary women staring longingly into their cups of coffee.
There's a lot to like about this collaboration, that's for sure. Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle have joined forces to deliver a country/rock/alternative/folk record that is as crisp and chilly as Alberta weather and as warm and welcoming as the coffee at that lonely truck stop just over the snow-capped mountains. - blogcritics.org

As notorious for having a ball as they are renowned for their songwriting prowess, Mark and Neville Quinlan aren't household names yet but are at the vanguard of folk and country songwriting in Canada. However incisive in their respective observational tunes, there's an undercurrent of clever fun running through their material that's refreshingly pure. Mark and Quinlan can also conjure heartbreak with quick, precise turns of phrase and, by and large, there's a forlorn tone to these songs. - Exclaim! Magazine

(Carolyn) Mark gets top billing here for a reason. With her warm twang and nonchalant sass, she has an easy way with a song, settling into opener "All Time Low" and the closing title track like she's crashing on someone's especially cozy couch. - Pitchfork

There's more to Canadian country than Neko Case (who's actually American). Carolyn Mark, who sounds eerily similar to Case and once played in a band with her, is one of the Great White North's brightest purveyors of twangy alt-country.

Her fifth record is, to put it simply, fun. You'll find yourself smiling, laughing and singing along to nearly every track here.

1 Thing is a rollicking line-dancing-approved track about love, while Pictures Of 5 is a simple acoustic number with more energy and enthusiasm than pretty much any new-country disc.

But the disc isn't just fun for her fans; it sounds like Mark is having a blast, too. Even slower songs like Point Of View are loose and casual; she sounds relaxed, as if she's sitting around a campfire with her friends. - Now Magazine - Toronto

"Mark’s witty on-stage banter carries over into her cleverly poetic songs, mixing tinges of real emotion and heartbreak with biting sarcasm and a love of good drink. Performing with both an additional guitar player and a violinist, Mark’s songs were perfectly suited to the atmosphere provided by the eager bar patrons, as fiddle-filled songs about boozy days off on tour tend to be. Performing a set mostly composed of brand-new material from her forthcoming full-length, Nothing is Free, these songs tended to showcase Mark’s less-funny musical tendencies, highlighting her more subtle abilities as a powerful emotional songwriter."
- Exclaim Magazine May 2007

Carolyn Mark, the rootin’-tootin’ roots music darling of Victoria, BC, does little to dispel the longstanding myth that booze consumption and creativity go hand-in-hand. But there’s more to Mark than just the smartass who can fire off internal rhymes for "gewurtzraminer." Pros and Cons, which features lively accompaniment from the New Best Friends, also doubles as a scrapbook of Mark’s misadventures. "Chantal and Leroy," "Yanksgiving," and the stripped-down "Jody and Sue" (with backing vocals by Kelly Hogan) are charming autobiographical episodes illuminated by Mark’s seasoned voice and off-the-cuff delivery. Whether she lands on her feet, or ass-over-teakettle, Mark always sounds like she’s having fun. - No Depression

It is time now to consider Carolyn Mark's qualifications for national-treasure status. Mark pens some of the funniest ('cause they're true) tunes about boozing you'll ever hear, and some of the most poignant tearjerkers as well. In the latter category, the lonely, dusky "Not a Doll" is so bittersweet it should come with a warning for the manic-depressive. - Georgia Straight (Vancouver, BC)

Like her close ally Neko Case (with whom she once traded as The Corn Sisters), Mark is a country girl with a wild streak. Nimbly assisted by members of Canadian folkies Po’ Girl, the settings for these songs are standard acoustic guitars, mandolin and strings, but she fills them with enough devilry and sly humour to draw you in to her bittersweet world completely. In a wondrous voice that’s half Kentucky hick, half Rocky Mountain draught, Mark sings of blonde nymphs in lace panties, tedious wives, racy mistresses and knives driven chestward. 4 Stars - Uncut

Mark strikes an even more impressive balance between wit and heartfelt observation on her fifth album, Nothing Is Free. She still gets a kick out of life's cruel ironies, but her droll insights are subtler and darker - a perfect complement to her most bittersweet songs yet, included the subdued waltz "The 1 That Got Away (with It)" and the noirish "Happy 2B Flying Away." It's certainly a new direction for Mark (fans who prefer her more direct humor should check out the uproarious tour diaries at carolynmark.com), and one that suggests her inability to achieve Case's level of success may actually be helping propel her songs closer to greatness. As she sings on "Pirate and Shotgun": Sometimes where you are is where you've been trying to go."
4 Stars
- Time Out New York

Like Case, she's a literate but accessible songwriter, and her high-lonesome voice is as devastating as it is warm and welcoming. "The 1 That Got Away (With It)", from Mark's just released Nothing is Free, is part of a whole tradition of women's bittersweet tales of giving up intimacy for sexual freedom, from Janis Joplin singing "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose," in the Kris Kristofferson-penned "Me & Bobby McGee" to Liz Phair's "Fuck And Run". With a spare background of acoustic guitar, violin, and mandolin, Mark sees a choice between the "one that got away" and "the one that's in the way." Mark comes up with another choice, the mischievous one who "just got away with it." She wonders, "If I keep you in the dark, where you'll always have to guess/ If I'm giving you my heart or just taking off my dress/ Maybe I'll be the one that got away with it." She's no weeping willow, though. Mark comes off as the kind of girl you'd have a good cry with before she set out on further adventures. - Pitchfork

Mark's music is so authentic in its back porch vibe, it seems to come with its own direct link to Loretta Lynn's '60s heyday—like her heroes, Mark is not afraid to rail against a man too drunk to understand his own fuck-ups. Not to say Mark is some kind of saint: Her gigs are known for their off-balance candor and ribald humor as much as the homespun tunes. Go for the music, stay for the dirty jokes.
- Metromix (New York)

Carolyn Mark… has hit her stride. On her superb second album, Terrible Hostess, the underappreciated Canadian vocalist has perfected her knack for writing old, Patsy-style country songs that poignantly and humorously capture the travails of dead-end lives – her own included. Witty, wry, and with more personality than anyone in alt-country, Mark claims she's a terrible hostess, but her second album may be the best tear-in-your-beer bash of the year. - San Francisco Bay Guardian

Mark, the other sister to Neko Case in the corn Sisters is a notable act in her own right, bright and sharp on the up-tempo numbers, and when it comes to the slow heart-tugging ballads she draws favourable comparisons to tExas singer-songwriter Sarah Elizabeth Campbell. 4 Stars - Maverick