Legendary all-American frontman and guitarist Mark Farner was the engine that pulled the original Grand Funk Railroad repeatedly to the top of the charts in the 1970s.

At age 70, Farner commands the stage with the same intensity and outpouring of love as he did in the summer of ’69 when the band’s debut album was released.

After the 1969 Atlanta Pop Festival put Grand Funk on the fast track, the band topped the Billboard charts twice with both the anthem We’re an American Band and The Loco-Motion. They then followed that and hit the top 10 in 1975 with Some Kind of Wonderful and Bad Time. The band broke up in ’76 and sporadically reunited over the years.

In August 1989 Mark participated in the 20th anniversary of the Woodstock festival at Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson, California. The 20 Years After festival featured Edgar Winter, Canned Heat, Iron Butterfly, Sha Na Na and others.

This brand new release, Rock ’n Roll Soul: Live, August 20th, 1989 (out now via Liberation Hall) is a stunning fifteen-track set included ten Grand Funk classics and the full concert is available on CD and DVD with a vinyl version of nine GFR tracks.

Some 50 years later something magical still happens when Farner takes the stage. His voice is still strong and on key with his guitar playing still slick and lightning quick. He loves playing live where he can connect to his fans and people of all ages. This concert captures that continued devotion to his iconic stage shows.

Throughout this captured live show, inclusive of an introduction by a man dressed as an LSD rendition of a balloon-bending clown, Farner is on top form, his voice as incredibly honed as it ever was.

Whether he is taking his guitar to hand or running his digits over his keyboard, Farner is leading the party like a trooper at all times. Dressed casually in a tshirt and pants, some of his band mates actually taking the time to dress up a little, the show is dutifully propulsive from start to finish.

1. Are You Ready
2. Rock ’N Roll Soul
3. Footstompin’ Music
4. Airborne Ranger
5. Judgement Day Blues 6. Some Kind of Wonderful
7. Paranoid
8. Come To Jesus
9. Mean Mistreater 10. Must Have Been Love
11. Bad Time
12. I’m Your Captain/Close To Home
13. Heartbreaker
14. Isn’t It Amazing
15. The Loco-Motion

This wonderfully impassioned live recording opens on the Hammond-fed, guitar rocker Are You Ready and a track that encapsulated the attitude of the 70’s perfectly, the titular Rock ’N Roll Soul and then we get the quintessential rock within Footstompin’ Music, the jam of Airborne Ranger, the low slung, spirited blues of Judgement Day Blues, the free flowing Some Kind of Wonderful, before both a monster blues reworking of Paranoid and the Christian-imbibed Come To Jesus are unleashed.

Along next from the man with a mullet on steroids is the beautiful Mean Mistreater and the deep, down and dirty rocker Must Have Been Love and they are in turn backed by the pop-rock of Bad Time, the funky, soulful and rocktastic medley I’m Your Captain/Close To Home, the rhythmically enchanting Heartbreaker, the album rounding out on the Christian Contemporary-hued Isn’t It Amazing, coming to a mighty upbeat close with the heart and soul of GFR giving us a crowd-injected, stunningly crafted sing-along in the form of The Loco-Motion.

www.markfarner.com