Song-builder. High-singer. Guit-slinger. Bug-lover. Dog-father. Living with Retinitis Pigmentosa. Singer/songwriter/sideman/producer. I'll drop the bio below, but enough about me…I wanna hear about you. Mark Erelli has forged a colorful career by making the art of “being everywhere all the time” seem effortless. It’s hard to think of another artist who seems equally at home serving as a sideman for GRAMMY-winning artists like Paula Cole, Marc Cohn, and Josh Ritter, or producing albums for Lori McKenna, as he does writing and producing his own material, like his upcoming album Lay Your Darkness Down. The album is inspired by a terrifying experience: during a performance in summer 2020, Mark Erelli looked down at his guitar neck and couldn’t see his fingers on the frets. Soon after, a diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a degenerative eye disease, would bring some answers, but it also yielded new questions. Does diminished eyesight correlate with lesser insight? Does your songwriting change when your perception of the world around you changes? These questions, and Erelli’s hunt for creative agency, are at the heart of Lay Your Darkness Down, a rousing album of defiance, hope, and resilience in the face of challenges.