Writer, Player, Keen Observer, Performer

Marc Douglas Berardo is the kind of hard working, fast moving, adventure seeking, keen observer who lives for the story and the song. In what amounts to song length works of fiction, Berardo’s sharply drawn, award winning song portraits cast a net on unusual and beguiling characters and places. With a painter’s eye for detail, and music firmly rooted in the great American sound, Berardo sings about circus retirees, expatriates in Florida rum bars, union iron workers, old poets, aimless New York City debutantes, near death car crashes, hard nosed fishermen and of course, the changes that experience brings to everyone. He does this “simply and well” with what Rambles Cultural Magazine calls: “careful images and great tunes.” 

“I try to write about people and situations that interest and entertain me. Subjects and places that I feel a connection with and that are unique in a quiet way. Real people and places caught in the moment, almost like a documentary film or a novel. At the same time, I need the music itself to take me somewhere…to make me feel something. The words have to sing and the music has to work. The kind of song that does those things is my idea of a good time.” 

Berardo's people settled in Rye, NY. He attended the same high school (Iona Preparatory, New Rochelle, NY) as notables Don Mclean (American Pie, Vincent), Frank Mara (Co-Owner of The NY Giants), Frank Abagnale (Bank fraud perpetrator and subject of the film Catch Me If You Can) and actor Bud Cort (Harold and Maude). After a failed attempt at college at Boston's Northeastern University (where he learned to play guitar and performed publicly for the first time), Berardo hightailed it to Florida where he eventually earned a BA in English and Creative Writing (pieced together at several schools Flagler College, U of Florida and The U of North Florida).  Berardo’s first  steady music gig was in a biker bar in Butler Beach, Florida in 1988 and since that day he has never stopped singing made up songs, performing an average of 150 nights a year everywhere from bars and coffeehouses to theaters and national festivals. Places such as the legendary Town Crier Cafe (NY), Narrows Center for the Arts (MA), The Fairfield Performing Arts Center (CT), Tupelo Music Hall (NH),Snapple Sunset Concert Series (RI), Mile High Concerts (CO), The Opening Bell (TX), Cafe Lena (NY) , The Ramshead Onstage (MD),The Katherine Hepburn Theater (CT),  The Evening Muse (NC), The Wildflower Art and Music Festival (TX), The Historic Cooper House (MD),The  Living Room (NY), Hard Rock Cafe (MA), Anderson Fair (TX), Fiddler's Dream (AZ), The Bluebird Cafe (TN) and St Anne's Chapel in Vatican City, Italy. Along the way he has shared the stage with a variety of national acts including  The Doobie Brothers, Peter Rowan, NRBQ, Guy Clark, Vassar Clements, Ralph Stanley, blues legend Chris Smither, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members The Buffalo Springfield, Brooks Williams, Martin Sexton, Amy Speace, Buddy Mondlock, Norman Blake (Oh Brother Soundtrack), Steve Forbert, Mcustard's Retreat, Justin Townes Earle, Eric Anderson, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, Red Molly, Garnet Rogers, Eilen Jewell Band, Greg Trooper, Cliff Eberhardt, Cheryl Wheeler, Lucy Kaplansky, Livingston Taylor, Catie Curtis, Kate Taylor, The Pousette Dart Band, Kevin Welch, The Kennedys, Eric Taylor, Jimmy LaFave, and John Haitt among others. As a member of The DesBerardo Band with his brother Chris, Marc has been a part of shows with classic rock acts including Little Feat, America, Foreigner, The Marshall Tucker Band, Badfinger, David Allen Coe, Levon Helm, Dickey Betts and Great Southern, Reckless Kelly and others. In recent years Marc has participated in several well regarded song workshop and performance excursions in exotic locations including Costa Rica, Islamorada and Bimini, Bahamas.

Berardo's fifth CD entitled WHALEBONE was released in Sept, 2013. Recorded in NYC, Woodstock, NY and rural Connecticut and produced by Brother Chris Berardo, Whalebone is a supremely crafted collection of songs about change, reemergence, strength and survival. Guests include the legendary Jon Pousette Dart (The Pousette Dart Band), Abbie Gardner (Red Molly), Lincoln Schleifer (Rosanne Cash, Richard Shindell, The Allman Brothers Band, Govt Mule, Donald Fagen). 

In May of 2014, Berardo won the 2014 Wildflower Art and Music Festival Song Contest in Texas. The following week he performed as a finalist in the legendary Kerrville New Folk Contest at the Kerrville Folk Festival. In early 2015, Berardo's feature appearance on Sirius/ XM Satellite Radio's The Village was voted one of the best of the year by listeners. 

When not playing his made up songs all over the place, Berardo lives in a fortified compound on a river by the ocean near Westerly, RI.