Student Journalism

Staying Power: Mark Oppenlander and One Alternative

Story and photos by Luna Lu
In collaboration with If Not For Music

Founder Mark Oppenlander’s life has revolved around music ever since he was a very young child. The Beatles served as his musical awakening when they made their debut and took over US mainstream music when he was only three years old.

“I was enthralled,” said Oppenlander, who is from Embreeville, PA. “By the time I was seven years old, I'd already been into the drums. I loved the drums, and I was copying Ringo's stuff all over the place,” he said.

He eventually switched to the guitar and began taking lessons at Taylor’s Music Store in the summer of 1968, later joining his school band.

In 1979, Oppenlander met fellow guitarist Frank McDermott at Temple University, where the two found an instant connection over their passion for music. The duo started to play music together almost immediately, but a focus on academics eventually dissolved these efforts. Years later, Oppenlander met Jill Haley and Kevin Roth, a dulcimerist, and the trio embarked on a successful tenure that included performing at the 1982 Philadelphia Folk Festival. The trio disbanded eventually, but when Oppenlander reconnected with McDermott to work on new music, Haley joined the duo. In 1983, One Alternative was officially born. 

The next two decades were eventful for the group as they went through more member changes, received critical acclaim, and tread closer to national fame. Just one year after their debut, One Alternative aired on WHYY Philadelphia and WNYC. Another highpoint, which is still a vivid memory for Oppenlander, was opening for Dixie Dregs in the fall of 1992. There were also setbacks, such as core musicians leaving to pursue other endeavors. Oppenlander stayed committed to the band, even while balancing occasional feelings of burnout, and One Alternative nevertheless continued to book gigs, write new music, and release albums. 

Oppenlander reflected that the group could have probably made it big if they kept going, and admitted that he wonders about what could have been. However, he also acknowledged that he was never in the music business for the sake of fame. 

“From very early on, I had to look at One Alternative and say, ‘Am I in this to try and be famous and be able to tour and to be able to do all these things that everybody else does, or am I in it purely, mainly because I love to do the music and it's worth my time?’” He states, “it was just pure love of the music itself and the work of creating.”

In 2016, the group gained a second wind when Oppenlander met violinist Dana Allaband, which transformed One Alternative into the quintet that it is today.

Oppenlander remarked, “She's the reason why the group is still together. She has her personality and her professional approach and her musicality and everything. She's just wonderful.”

Aside from Allaband, he also expressed his thanks to his other three band mates: “I'm grateful for the fact that I have four people that I work with that are dedicated to this music and dedicated to doing as good of a job as we can… Everybody knows that they’ve got to have it together, and everybody does.”

Regarding the future of One Alternative, Oppenlander hopes to keep making good music and try creating more video performances. 

“I want to do something that documents the group and the fact that I'm writing out this music because not many people write out their own music [anymore],” he said. For this reason, Oppenlander has made a documentary chronicling One Alternative’s journey through the years, which is simply called “One Alternative Music Documentary” and is readily available on their YouTube channel.

“I'll be doing this for maybe another ten or twenty years, and who knows what the music business is going to be like. Live music may not even be in the culture by then. Who knows? So I just take it day by day. That's the best way to do it. It's always the way I've been doing it. Every year is just month by month, year by year. Don't look five years ahead. I mean, forty-two years have gone by and One Alternative is still playing,” he added. 

Closing the interview, Oppenlander remarked, “Sometimes it has nothing to do with music. It's just being a human being.” 

His mantra was on full display during One Alternative’s recent Kennett Flash performance, where he and his band mates interacted closely with the audience and created what could be called a profoundly human experience. That night, something about the Kennett Flash’s intimate vibe combined with One Alternative’s music felt deeply transcendental. And I figured that I wasn’t the only one who felt that way–the smiles on people’s faces throughout the night said it all.

Sightlines Media partners with If Not For Music to give students real-world journalism experience. Student journalists attend and cover If Not For Music events, interview artists, and produce stories that help promote the organization’s mission while introducing new audiences to Sightlines Media and its student work.