Mark Vidito was born in Glendale CA on October 24, 1951 and grew up in the San Fernando Valley, in the northern area of Los Angeles.  He began playing piano by ear when he was about five years old.  He joined his first band when he was about thirteen with neighborhood and school friends Mark Hawkins - drums, Chris Packer – guitar and Paul McIntire – bass guitar.  Spawned by the British Invasion, all of them found ways to acquire instruments and begin playing cover songs and discovering an ability to write songs of their own.  They played for school dances and parties at friend’s homes calling themselves The Jades, a name derived from the then popular cologne Jade East.  Another friend, Joe DiBlasi joined on guitar and occasional accordion and another friend Dan Nishimura replaced Mark Hawkins on drums.  The group became Chapter One.  They graduated to a few home recordings and one opportunity at a local music store but by 1967 they disbanded.  Mark found a number of friends over the next few years to work with including the likes of John Crossen and Chrys Berri, but didn’t perform regularly during his high school years.  After high school he worked for a short time with Sing Out! San Fernando Valley, a local affiliate of the nationally known Up With People performing group.  After that he continued to do some casual work with John and another childhood buddy, Tom LaForge.

Becoming an avid fan of the music of Linda Ronstadt, Mark also became a follower of groups like the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Poco and the then current work of Rick Nelson.  While following Linda he became acquainted with her band members Gib Guilbeau and John Beland.  When they moved on to pursue their own project as Swampwater, Mark enjoyed an introduction to Gib's Cajun influences.  He continued a strong fan relationship with both Linda and Swampwater.  Leading up to and during the live recording sequences of Linda's self titled Capitol records LP, he would gain an appreciation for the talents of band members Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Mickey McGee and Richard Bowden.  After hearing Richard perform “Mail Order Dog” and his original “virgin” of “Big Bad John”, Mark found Richard’s band's Shiloh LP and was musically introduced to the other members of that band who would all go on to make important musical contributions.  This all led to a growing awareness of the contingency of musicians who had been working within the Southern California folk-country-rock genre.  When Gib and Sneaky reformed the Flying Burrito Brothers, they let him visit backstage at shows and he gained an appreciation for the important contributions of that band back to its beginnings with Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman.

Mark did some writing and found chances to perform only occasionally during most of the seventies while employed at United Artists Records.  Then after transferring to a publishing company position in 1979, somewhat by chance in the spring of 1980, while visiting the company’s Nashville office, he supplied guitar and keyboard tracks to a demo recording for a Richard Leigh / Milton Blackford song.  That song became a track on the Burrito Brothers project Gib, John, Sneaky and Mickey were recording for Epic/Curb.  The chance intersection came to light while Mark was visiting backstage during a Flying Burrito Brothers show that summer and a few months later they asked him to audition for the touring band.  He was hired as the keyboardist for the Burrito Brothers “Hearts On The Line” tour in 1981.  Then in August of that year, Sneaky and multi-instrumentalist-vocalist Charlie Harwood both left the band for other projects and were replaced by Skip Edwards and Richard Bowden.  Unfortunately at the end of the year, the band was dissolved and Gib and John relocated to Nashville.  Mark’s daughter had been born during the year and he returned to working in the publishing business and focusing on family.

Over the next twenty some years, Mark performed casually including opportunities with Burrito veteran Greg Harris and singer Dan McCorison.  He contributed to recording and performing projects with old friend John Crossen and drummer Kevin Wachs including LP's by John Day and Forever & A Day and live shows with those acts as well as the band Pacific.  In the eighties, he engineered several song demo recordings for CBS Songs, affording the opportunity to work with a number of talented and well known songwriters and musicians including Ron Miller and Ken Hirsch, David Morgan, Herb Pedersen, Jay Dee Maness, Michael Bolton and Gene Simmons.  He continued some limited performing into the nineties reuniting with childhood friend Matt Margucci and consequently working with veteran Lud Grande and his Canyon Country Band.  In the late nineties he had the opportunity to work with the worship band at First Presbyterian Church of Burbank which he continued until moving to Texas in 2006.

After arriving in Texas he began subbing occasionally with Moon & the Starz, filling in for Mark Harrell, their talented Arlington-based keyboard player who was being offered more paying gigs in the Dallas area closer to his home.  In late spring of 2007, Mark V replaced Mark H and the former Burrito tour band mates were reunited for a new project.

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