Mark Lanegan is one of my forever favorite singer-songwriter-poets. Greg Dulli, lead singer to Afghan Whigs, is another favorite of mine. I was lucky to get to see Afghan Whigs with one of my best friends, for her birthday, this year – we were in the front row, against that stage, and though it left me with ringing ears for days, it was such an amazing show. Greg has so much energy and stage presence, and that voice. Oh my stars.

I recently read that Mark and Greg were roommates once upon a time. They had stayed friends through the years, and all the music. Greg said this about Mark in a Rolling Stones article about missing Mark Lanegan:

“Mark was a brother to me,” says Dulli. “I’ll tell you why I’m mostly sad about it is that I really feel like he had started to find his writer voice. He wrote a couple books in the last five years of his life, and even a novel, and a couple books of poetry, and he was really good. I was just watching him improve. I was watching him become this other thing and I really wanted to see where it would go.

“Mark was just a very complicated guy in a lot of ways, but in a lot of ways, very simple. Super talented, incredibly kind, one of the funniest people I’ve ever known.

“I really do miss even just the snarky texts we’d send to each other when something weird would happen,” Dulli adds. “And like a lot of good friends, you have your secret language. And I miss the banter because he could just fucking crack me up. For someone with such an intimidating public persona, he was a fucking pussycat and really sweet, very thoughtful. And without question, he was one of the greatest singers to ever sing.

“I visit with him either through our text chain or listening to him. Some folks have sent me interviews and live clips of him that they love. Mark will never be far from me. He’s always very close to me, and it’s not anything that I’ll be over ever. But I can say that I’m glad he’s at least in a peaceful place now.” from Rolling Stone.

Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan

“Girl from the North Country” by Greg Dulli, featuring Mark Lanegan
Song of the Day

“Girl from the North Country” by Greg Dulli, featuring Mark Lanegan – from the single, “Girl from the North Country” (2022)

“If you’re travelin’ in the north country fair,
where the winds hit heavy on the borderline.
Remember me to one who lives there,
oh she once was a true love of mine.”

The Bob Dylan cover, “Girl from the North Country” was released as a Record Store B-Side to the Greg Dulli single, “Ghost” on 7″ vinyl, in 2020. Mark Lanegan was the featured artist on the B-Side. The cover has been released as this year closes as a single of it’s own.

Greg and Mark collaborated often, regularly contributing to each other’s projects, since 2000. They gave themselves the moniker of The Gutter Twins, paying satirical homage to The Glimmer Twins, the pseudonym used by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards for work producing recordings by The Rolling Stones. (from Wikipedia)

Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan