Dusty Wright

Dusty Wright
Wright at the 2012 New York Comic Con
Born	Mark J. Petracca (1957-07-02) July 2, 1957 (age 59)
Occupation	Musician, producer, writer, editor

Dusty Wright (born Mark J. Petracca) is an American musician, producer, and writer, and a former editor-in-chief of the music magazine Creem. In August 2005, he co-founded the audio podcasting and video webcasting online pop-culture magazine CultureCatch.com, which features his interview series The Dusty Wright Show. Interviews from the show were among the very first video and audio podcasts featured at iTunes with such guests as Ron Howard, Gore Vidal, Jim Marshall, Budd Hopkins, and CultureCatch.com board advisor David Lynch.

Wright is also a contributor to The Huffington Post.

Dusty Wright was born Mark J. Petracca. He was born and raised in Akron, Ohio in an Italian-American family. His grandparents originated in the Abruzzo region of Italy. His father was Joseph Petracca, and he had a younger brother, David Petracca. Describing himself as a "music junkie", Wright first developed a passion for music upon seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show.

As a young man, Wright forwent a career in law school to move to New York City, where he hoped to enter the entertainment industry. At the end of the 1980s, he started what he calls his first "official" music project, The Trolls, a folk-rock duo that wrote and performed children's songs for adults. Wright subsequently founded the Bastards of Execution (BöE, pronounced "boo"), a pre-grunge/noise band. After a few years, Wright developed an interest in folk-rock and Americana, finding it more challenging musically and creatively. Wright describes his music as "Americana-ish with a healthy dose of folk-rock".

Wright has stated that he has been heavily influenced by a radio song's structure and poetic depth, and by the music of the 1960s, including performers such as Kris Kristoferson, Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Nick Cave, Warren Zevon, Townes Van Zandt. Wright has also pointed to the importance of tone and textures in production and guitar sounds, and has found inspiration in this regard from Pink Floyd, early Roxy Music, Eno, XTC, Elow, Radiohead, and PJ Harvey. Other artists that Wright has named among his favorites include Emmylou Harris, Crowded House, The Byrds, Michael Kiwanuka, Syd Arthur, and Ryan Adams. Specific albums he has cited include Neil Young's After The Goldrush and Patti Smith's Horses, which he says informed his musical psyche the most.