[4] Erelli's song “People Look Around”, which he co-wrote with Catie Curtis, was the Grand Prize winner at the 2005 International Songwriting Competition.
[2] Erelli was introduced to the music of Patty Larkin, Chris Smither, and other singer-songwriters by listening to the radio station WBOS.
[6] Erelli attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine and in 1997 enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he obtained a master's degree in evolutionary biology in 1999.
Produced by Lorne Entress, Erelli was backed by musicians Duke Levine, Kevin Barry, Jim Lamond, Dave Dick, Joe Barbato, Roger Williams, and Mike Dinallo and guest vocalists, Rani Arbo, Louise Taylor, and Ben Demerath.
Duke Levine and Kevin Barry once again lent support on guitar along with Dave Dick on banjo and Entress on the jaw harp and percussion.
[2] Erelli's next project was to forego the traditional studio and instead gather a group of musicians to play within the walls of the Civil War era Memorial Hall in Monson, Massachusetts.
[13] Innocent When You Dream, released in 2007, is a collection of lullabies and love songs, which features solo acoustic performances by Erelli as well as covers by Shawn Colvin, Townes Van Zandt, and others.
[14] Later that year Erelli invited fans to finance his next studio album - Delivered - referring to the project as a barn raising.
[2] In his review of Delivered for The Huffington Post, entertainment writer Mike Ragogna said:"This is powerful stuff, and it's a shame that over the six or so albums Mark Erelli has created, he hasn't grown into a more popular artist.
"[18] In the spring of 2014, Erelli announced a Kickstarter campaign to fund his Bill Morrissey tribute CD titled Milltowns.
On June 26, 2014, Erelli announced that the Kickstarter campaign had exceeded his initial $20,000 goal with donations received from more than 400 supporters of the project.
[20] In her review for Folk Alley, Kim Ruehl wrote: "Milltowns doesn't come off as a covers record or a tribute album, though, so much as it does a thank-you note for the songs Morrissey put out into the world.
"[21] On January 4, 2016, Erelli announced a second Kickstarter campaign in support of For A Song - his first solo album of original material in six years.
In his review for The Boston Globe, Stuart Munro wrote that the release is "genre-bending music filled with jawdropping harmonizing, emotive ensemble playing, and a raucous immediacy.
They include Woody Guthrie's "Philadelphia Lawyer," Bruce Springsteen's "Johnny 99," and Kevin "Blackie" Farrell's "Sonora's Death Row," to name three.
The other Darwin artists are Chris Wood, Karine Polwart, Rachael McShane, Jez Lowe, Stu Hanna, Krista Detor and Emily Smith.
A concert at the Theatre Severn in March 2009 was recorded and later released as a live CD, and the artists reunited in August 2009 for a performance at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival.