| Blues |
Lefty’s Back: Kevin Mark Comes Out Swinging on a Short, Searing Blues EP
Montreal blues guitarist and vocalist Kevin Mark has built his reputation on stage, not in the studio, and Lefty’s Back, his tight, five-track new EP, sounds like it knows that. This is a record that doesn’t waste a second chasing polish; instead, it goes straight for the raw, spontaneous energy that has made Mark a fixture of the Quebec blues circuit and a multiple Lys Blues and Maple Blues Award winner. If the only thing holding this release back from the very top marks is its runtime, eighteen minutes is a tease when the band sounds this good, everything inside those eighteen minutes earns a very strong four stars, and then some.
Mark has always played guitar with his own accent: an early fascination with B.B. King’s phrasing, filtered through decades of immersion in the blues masters of the 1950s and ’60s, and delivered with a powerful, unfussy voice that connects the moment he opens his mouth. He’s taken that sound from Quebec and Ontario stages to France, and Lefty’s Back plays like a postcard from those gigs, hand-picked covers, reworked with the band’s own stamp, captured with almost no studio sheen between the performance and the listener.
That’s by design. The EP was produced by Mark and his longtime musical collaborator Frankie Thiffault, who also recorded, mixed, and mastered the sessions (with setup and tracking assistance from Dan Mayrand), and who steps out from behind the board to add saxophone on two of the five tracks. The result is a record that feels less “produced” than simply documented: a veteran band playing in a room together, with the mics rolling.
“Goodbye Baby” throws open the door at full tilt: a relentless, freight-train swing groove that announces exactly what kind of record this is going to be before the first verse even lands. Thiffault’s saxophone is the track’s secret weapon, dropping in a vintage, honking colour that instantly widens the band’s sound from a four-piece to something closer to a small revue. It’s a terrific table-setter, and a smart choice to open on, because it leaves no doubt about the energy level to come.
“Farmer John” eases the throttle back just slightly and puts the spotlight on the chemistry between Mark and pianist Big Time Lew, whose harmony vocals give the track an easy, fraternal warmth, the sound of two musicians who’ve logged serious stage time together and know exactly how to lean into each other’s phrasing.
Then comes “She’s Gone,” the EP’s radio focus track and, deservedly, its emotional centre. Mark reaches for something deeper here: a blistering, heartfelt tribute to the late Nick Curran that fuses genuine grief with fire. It’s the clearest demonstration on the record of what Mark does best, taking an influence and turning it into something unmistakably his own, personal rather than imitative. If you only sample one track from this EP, make it this one.
“Tanqueray” hands the wheel to Big Time Lew, and he makes the most of it, pairing warm, velvety vocals with fluid, rolling piano work that pulls the record into late-night, boogie-soul territory. It’s a welcome change of lead voice partway through a short tracklist, and it keeps the EP from ever feeling like a one-man showcase, this is very much a band record.
The EP closes with “You Were Wrong,” another hard-driving, high-energy number that refuses to let the momentum sag on the way out. It’s an ending that leaves you wanting an encore rather than feeling finished, which is, frankly, the EP’s one real shortcoming. Five songs go by fast, and Lefty’s Back could easily have supported two or three more cuts from a band clearly capable of filling a full set.
Behind Mark and Big Time Lew, the rhythm section does serious, unglamorous work that holds the whole EP together. Bassist Mike Bélanger, a stage veteran since 1989 and a longtime member of the iconic Quebec band Vilain Pingouin, anchors every track with a solid, expressive low end, while drummer Francis Verdon, who cut his teeth with Montreal’s Hellbound Hepcats, drives the songs forward with a contagious, precise shuffle. Together with Big Time Lew’s keys, they give Mark a band that sounds less like hired session players and more like a crew who’ve shared the stage for years, because, in large part, they have.
Lefty’s Back is Kevin Mark doing exactly what he does best, captured with just enough studio craft to make it portable and just enough looseness to keep it honest. “Goodbye Baby” and “She’s Gone” alone are worth the price of admission, and the whole band — Big Time Lew, Mike Bélanger, Francis Verdon, plus Frankie Thiffault’s well-placed saxophone cameos — plays with the kind of lived-in chemistry that can’t be faked in a studio. The only real complaint is one of appetite: at five songs and eighteen minutes, this EP ends just as it’s hitting its stride, which keeps it from the very top marks but also makes it easy to recommend without hesitation. Lefty is, unmistakably, back. Now here’s hoping the next release gives him more room to stretch out.
Frankie Pfeiffer
Editor in chief – PARIS-MOVE
PARIS-MOVE, October 15th, 2026
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Tracklist:
- Goodbye Baby (3:28)
- Farmer John (2:26)
- She’s Gone (3:45)
- Tanqueray (feat. Big Time Lew) (4:26)
- You Were Wrong (4:14)
Length: 5 songs – 18 minutes
Musicians:
Kevin Mark: guitar, vocals
Big Time Lew: piano, vocals
Mike Bélanger: bass, backing vocals
Francis Verdon: drums / backing vocals
Special guest:
Frankie Thiffault: saxophone on tracks 1 and 3
Credits:
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Frankie Thiffault, with setup and tracking assistance from Dan Mayrand.
Produced by Kevin Mark & Frankie Thiffault