Mark Dvorak // Billy Blanchard (Homefield Recordings)

Mark Dvorak is the third son of four, born to a working class family on Chicago’s southwest side. After reading Anthony Scaduto’s biography of Bob Dylan in high school, his interest in American folk music was born. Soon the recordings of Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, and Pete Seeger found their way to him. He purchased his first acoustic guitar while working in a xylophone factory in LaGrange, IL, and enrolled in classes at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music. 

The Midwest region of Folk Alliance International gave him the 2013 Lantern Bearer Award, which is presented to someone who’s contributed to folk performance arts and the folk music and dance community for 25 years or more. 

Mark performs more than 200 dates each year and looks back on a 30-year career woven from the disparate threads of touring musician, educator, and community builder.

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Billy Blanchard (swamp-folk trio WETLANDS, old-time DIY trio Peg & Awl) is an original songwriter with a unique sound of fingerstyle and folk guitar. His songs communicate reflections and inspirations drawn from life’s day-to-day moments and the larger themes of Being. 

Billy lives in Grand Rapids, MI, and produces the HomeField Recordings podcast—a gentle, meandering patchwork of songs and sounds recorded in nature and his surroundings. Season 3 of HomeField Recordings has begun, with new episodes releasing every Sunday in July.