Mark Tegio is a singer-songwriter, guitar player, and storyteller based in Portland, Oregon. He’s been playing music since childhood, when his dad bought him his first guitar in a small shop in Southern California. He started touring in 2017 with his duo, Smith and Tegio, and released two LPs—Smith and Tegio and Can’t Stay Here—along with a couple of singles. In 2025, with the evolution from a duo to a five-piece band, Smith and Tegio changed their name to The Lowtimers. They are releasing their debut album, Cracks, on May 16th.

Tegio's songs include tales of wanderers and outcasts, dreamers and revelers, lovers and losers—all of whom he has been at one time or another. Originally from San Diego, Tegio found fellow native Tom Waits to be an early influence. Waits' fantastical songs of seedy, sordid characters, accompanied by his raspy, guttural voice, inspired Tegio’s writing and singing. When Tegio was introduced to Texas songwriters such as Townes Van Zandt and Blaze Foley, he quickly began incorporating some of his favorite aspects of their writing and playing into his own developing style. Townes' dark, poetic imagery—especially of natural beauty—paired with his lonesome yet hopeful songs, combined with the levity Foley often used and Waits’ vivid storytelling, all unite to create the distinctive barroom poetry of Mark Tegio.