“A great songwriter and a master on the dobro. I am honored to call him my friend.” — Billy Strings

Book Mark Lavengood for Your Event

Unforgettable music for your next event — from festival stages to living rooms, let’s bring Mark’s dobro, songs, and stories to your crowd.

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Wear It Home

Tees, ringers, trucker hats, mugs and magnets — the Huggy Bear, the hand, and the Sasquatch. Printed in small runs, and they go fast at the merch table.

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Mark Lavengood is a dobro player, songwriter, and bandleader out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He won the dobro competition at RockyGrass in 2012 and has carried the resonator guitar to Celtic Connections, Telluride Bluegrass, IBMA’s World of Bluegrass, Wheatland, Blissfest, and a long list of folk and roots festivals since — and, closer to home, onto the Van Andel Arena stage alongside Billy Strings.

The Mark Lavengood Band is Mark on dobro and vocals, Dutcher Snedeker on keys, Justin Avdek on bass, and Loren Kranz on drums. The band is booking 2027 now.

When he’s not on the road, Mark cofounded Smiling Acres Music Festival and served on its founding committee; today he’s the festival’s Ambassador. He owns and operates The Bear Den, his own studio, where he produces records for other artists. He plays sideman with select groups, does artist-at-large work for FestivALL, and a few times a year he fronts a John Prine tribute band.

His new record, Wake Up, arrives this fall as a two-volume series.

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Start Learning the Dobro

Learn to Play the Dobro

Always wanted to play a musical instrument? Interested in the dobro? In recent memory, the dobro (resonator guitar) has evolved as one of the most in-demand instruments in a variety of musical genres, most notably: bluegrass, country, and folk, and the appearance of the dobro in recordings and live performances has increased dramatically over the past few decades. Like the lap steel, the dobro allows one to sustain notes for longer intervals, adding continual layers and texture with less concentrated effort.

Grand Rapids, Michigan-based musician Mark Lavengood picked up the dobro in the mid-2000s and in the time since his introduction to the instrument has performed and instructed dobro on local, regional, national & international levels, winning the prestigious dobro competition at the renowned RockyGrass Bluegrass Festival in 2012. In addition , Mark has given workshops and performed at notable festivals like Celtic Connections, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, World of Bluegrass at IBMA, Pagosa Folk and Bluegrass Festival, Wheatland Music Festival, Blissfest, and a laundry list of folk and roots music festivals of esteem.

In November of 2018, Lavengood recorded a series of instructional dobro modules for the beginning, intermediate, and advanced player, each accompanied by their own song to learn, as well as myriad video tutorials on technique, method, and style. The audio was recorded in the Bear Den (at Grand Haven's lauded Third Coast Recording Studio), while the video was recorded and edited by Sarah Ford of Surf Ford Productions (https://surffordproductions.com/ ) The instructional content is accessible via Lavengood's webstore at marklavengood.com, where interested parties can join his email list and follow musicwithmark.com for more free lessons or to schedule an intimate one-on-one dobro lessons with Mark. Dobro

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Mark is endorsed by Beard Guitars, GHS Strings, and K & K Pickups.

Musicians performing on stage with guitars, banjo, and drums, singing passionately under stage lights.
A man with a beard and braces, wearing a fedora hat and suspenders, is playing a steel-bodied resonator guitar against a blue brick wall.
A man with a beard wearing a hat, playing an acoustic guitar outdoors on a sidewalk with a grassy field and trees in the background.
A man with a beard wearing a wide-brimmed hat and light-colored pants playing an acoustic guitar in a field during sunset.
A man with a beard and long hair, wearing a hat and a button-up shirt, playing an acoustic guitar in a dimly lit room.
A musician wearing a hat and brown shirt is playing a metal percussion instrument on a stage, singing or speaking into a microphone. Another musician with a beard, wearing a black shirt, is playing a guitar nearby. Several microphones are set up in f
A man with a beard and mustache wearing a hat and denim shirt, playing an acoustic guitar and singing into a microphone, with another musician in the background.
A band of musicians performing on stage, viewed through stage equipment in the foreground, with various instruments including guitar and double bass under stage lighting.
Musicians performing on stage, including a man with long hair and a beard, holding a hat over his head, singing into a microphone, surrounded by other musicians playing guitars, with microphones and music equipment visible.