Vandaveer is the town-folk, city-pop solo song & dance routine committed to tape and stated for the record by one Mark Charles Heidinger. In recent seasons this Mark Charles character traversed the mighty American highways spreading golden pop rock cheer and debauchery as principle singer, songwriter, hand-clapper, and chorus-yelper for The Apparitions. Where The Apparitions cast five hearty votes for bombast, electricity, and drums, Vandaveer steers left, detouring through the quieter side of song doing his very best to learn what makes an acoustic guitar the world’s finest storytelling machine.
Weaned on the cadence and vibrations of a mighty pipe organ-driven church choir, Vandaveer picked up his pop’s old Gibson J-50 at age 15, butchered a Nirvana tune, and went on his merry way to learn his new craft. Born in cloudy Ohio, raised in the great state of Kentucky, and currently camped out in our nation’s fair capital, Vandaveer found in his heart a volume of tunes about love, death, redemption and flight and a stirring itch to sing his way through the dark.
Vandaveer has enjoyed the good fortune of performing with a host of worthy and humbling artists including The Ditty Bops, Smog, Tim Easton, Steve Forbert, Paleo, Phonograph, The Scourge of The Sea, and his dear friends in DC’s ramshackle collective, The Federal Reserve.
Hooked on the sugary, melodic charm of McCartney’s early solo records, the theatrical grit of every Tom Waits song ever recorded, and the humbling wit of Dylan’s finest hours, Vandaveer lingers comfortably at the corner of folk and pop.
Vandaveer’s debut record, Grace & Speed, will be released on March 20th, 2007 on Washington, DC’s new imprint, Gypsy Eyes Records. Extensive national touring to follow...
