According to NOLA.com, James David Mark, guitarist for the New Orleans-formed group Michael Hurtt and his Haunted Hearts, died Thursday, July 11, 2013 in Detroit, Michigan of natural causes. He was 43 years old.

Mark, who was born in Flint, Michigan, moved to New Orleans, Louisiana in 1992 and later relocated to to Oxford, Mississippi. He performed with a number of bands in the New Orleans area, including Jack Oblivian’s Tennessee Tearjerkers, Carroll County Picture Show, the Cowboy Killers, the Belvederes, Jeffrey Evans, the Piedmont blues guitarist Precious Bryant and the Oxford-based Wiley and the Checkmates, a soul band originally founded by frontman Herbert Wiley in 1960. Mark released new albums by the Checkmates on his own independent Pickmark Records label.

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