Pleasant Hill: Guitarist overcomes health crisis, volunteers his musical talents

LAFAYETTE — From the time Mark Stanley picked up the guitar at age 3, taught himself how to play by the time he was 8, and started writing songs when he was 11, he knew he’d found his life’s passion.

He achieved early success: when walking one day, he heard someone playing a song he’d written; he was also in a rock ‘n’ roll band while attending Del Valle High School. He idolized John Stewart, the late Bay Area songwriter, singer, guitar player and former member of the Kingston Trio band.

“I met him when I was 17,” said Stanley, who grew up in Lafayette. “I took voice lessons from his wife Buffy.”

As Stanley’s musical skills blossomed, strumming the guitar was a lot like eating and breathing — he couldn’t imagine a life without doing it.

But in 2001, Stanley came back home sick after chaperoning his daughter’s field trip on a hot May day in the town of Coloma. The next day, he had to perform in a show but with a sore throat and high fever, Stanley collapsed, hit his head and was taken to the hospital.

“At one point, I asked the doctor, ‘Am I going to live?’ and the doctor said, ‘I think so,'” said Stanley, who remembers feeling disheartened by the prognosis.

“I was in a coma for a week and when I woke up, all my fingers and toes were black,” he said.

Contracting bacterial meningitis resulted in the amputation of Stanley’s fingertips and six toes.

He agonized — would he ever play the guitar again? The gravity of his experience hit him really hard.

“All I did was play the guitar for the last 30 years,” said Stanley. “I played when I was happy; I played when I was sad, and when I was hungry.”

The irony was that for years he’d done everything he could to protect his fingers just so he could play the guitar. Soon, depression set in. But Stanley knew he had to be strong for his daughter.

Things started looking up with opportunities to become an elementary schoolteacher’s aide and to teach guitar at Campana Music in Lafayette.

While his illness had caused him to lose his ability to play guitar like he once did, Stanley believes he gained a worthwhile experience as a teacher’s aide at Burton Valley Elementary School and teaching guitar to kids and adults.

Stanley will be volunteering his talents for “Come Together,” the annual concert benefiting the Pleasant Hill Teen’s Center programs. He heard about the benefit concert fundraiser through local musician and concert organizer Paul Cotruvo, whom he met in high school and once played with in a folk-rock band.

“Mark is a true inspiration and one of the finest songwriters in the Bay Area,” said Cotruvo.

For years, Cotruvo and his wife, Sheila, have helped raise funds for the Pleasant Hill Teen Center that offers after-school programs, classes such public speaking, baby-sitting, modeling and teen camps and tutors for homework help. It’s been nice to have local performers like Stanley volunteer their time and talent for a good cause, said Cotruvo, who performs with Big Jangle, a Tom Petty tribute band.

Stanley said he hopes that young people will realize just what an impact music can make in someone’s life.

“A friend said, ‘when you have music you’re never alone, you’ll always have something with you,'” Stanley said. “When I get asked to help with good causes, especially for young people, I just jump at the chance to help. This is a time when they need direction in their lives. Music gives them a safe place to express their feelings.”

Other local performers to be featured at the “Come Together” concert are: The Bell Brothers, a country band; blues performer Frankie G.; Stephanie Rickher and Cotruvo performing acoustic covers; singer and songwriter Alexa Hiene; alternative band The New Frantics; singer and songwriter Claire Thompson; and young performer Siena Coward.