As a singer/songwriter and an instrumentalist on piano and guitar, the multi-talented Mark DeRose blends introspective lyrics with heartfelt acoustic rock. Influenced by musical greats like James Taylor, Bruce Hornsby and Dave Matthews, DeRose brings a distinctive sound that has been challenging listeners and entertaining high energy crowds for nearly a decade.

Patrick Kirchner of The Fly describes this engaging music as "thoughtful and provocative, laden with metaphors of hope and celebration for life – the stuff that makes feel good music feel so good."

As the singer/songwriter and front man of the original roots rock group, the Ernest Goodlife Band, DeRose spent '02 through '06 performing throughout the greater Mid-Atlantic Region. Performing at a range of venues from coffee shops to clubs, private parties to festivals, high schools to colleges, Ernest Goodlife grew a fan base hungry for great music and great times.

On the heels of the band's split in September '06, DeRose carried the building enthusiasm into his solo career. After a long winter and spring of recording and tweaking 13 new tracks, "Tales from the Sandcastle Kingdom" was finally released in August of '07. DeRose celebrated his brand new solo album with a CD Release Party that attracted 276 attendees and sold more than 100 CDs.

In just a short time working as a solo act in the college music market, DeRose has booked an impressive amount of shows with hopes of adding more to the '08 calendar. Other recent achievements include his original song "Satisfied," selected to appear on two separate compilation CDs: "Millennium Music Conference 12 Compilation CD", and Quickstar Productions "Chill Out". Most recently, eight of DeRose's songs have been cleared for use on television's oldest daytime soap opera, "Guiding Light".

DeRose has already performed at many colleges in the Mid-Atlantic area including Bucknell University, University of Delaware, the University of Pennsylvania, Salisbury University and Penn State University. Always feeling right at home on a summer festival stage, he has played the Central PA Arts Fest, Musikfest, Harrisburg Patriot News Arts Fest, Mayfair Music Fest in Allentown and the West Chester Turk's Head Music Fest.

Most notably, he has opened for the Sugar Hill Gang, Josh Kelley, The Earthtones, 10 Mile Tide, New Found Glory and John Eddie…..and just this past June, The Mark DeRose Band had the great pleasure of opening for Blues Traveler. The highlight of that evening for the members of the Mark DeRose Band came when Blues Traveler frontman John Popper announced to the audience, "Did you guys catch the opener, The Mark DeRose Band? They were F*%#ing awesome!". A memorable quote on a very memorable night!