Keith Douglas "Midge" Marsden (born 1945) is a New Zealand

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

and R&B guitarist, harmonica-player, and singer with a musical career spanning four decades.

Life and career

Marsden was born and brought up in Moturoa,

New Plymouth New Plymouth () is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, in Devon, from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. The New Pl ...

Taranaki Taranaki is a regions of New Zealand, region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano Mount Taranaki, Taranaki Maunga, formerly known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the ...

, the son of Les and Elaine Marsden. His musical education started on the piano and included singing in church, though his first musical love was

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

. As a teenager, he took guitar lessons from a New Plymouth musician called Leo Davies, who also owned a recording studio in the town, and went on to further lessons with another musician, Johnny Williams. Marsden's career spans four decades, and during that time he has played thousands of concerts in New Zealand and introduced several generations of New Zealanders to the blues. He was voted New Zealand Entertainer of the Year in 1990, and his 1991 album ''Burning Rain'' later went

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

. Marsden did a New Zealand tour with The Rodger Fox band in the latter part of 1993. Several live performances were recorded plus a number of tracks recorded live at Broadcasting House in Wellington. Musicians on that tour included, Neil Hannan on bass, Martin Winch on guitar, Paul Dunningham on drums, Brian Henderson on keyboards, George Chisolm and Geoff Culverwell on trumpets and Brian Smith and Steve Sheriff on saxophones. Marsden has toured the US four times, and each time he has played with and befriended artists such as Little Willy Foster, Bobby Mack, Ronnie Taylor, and Australian

Dave Boyle Dave Boyle (born 1982) is an American director, writer, editor, and actor. He has written and directed several movies that utilize primarily Asian or Asian-American casts, including the feature films ''Big Dreams Little Tokyo'' (2006), ''White o ...

. He has encouraged all these artists to tour New Zealand, and thus broadened New Zealanders' appreciation of blues music. Marsden was a student at the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (Epithet, byname Ole Miss) is a Public university, public research university in University, near Oxford, Mississippi, United States, with a University of Mississippi Medical Center, medical center in Jackson, Miss ...

in 1996, from where he graduated with a Diploma in Southern Studies, and more recently he has tutored at Waikato Institute of Technology in "Bluesology". In the 2006 New Year Honours, Marsden was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to music. Marsden was a friend of

Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (also known as SRV; October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (band), Double Trouble. Although his ma ...

; upon living in Texas at various times he would stay at Vaughan's house for months on end. He toured with Vaughan a few times, playing harmonica. In October 2018 he was presented with the President's Medallion from the Variety Artists Club of New Zealand.

Discography

*1966: ''Lets Take A Sea Cruise'' with Bari and the Breakaways. HMV(NZ)Ltd. *1966: ''Album Two'' also with The Breakaways. HMV(NZ)Ltd. *1979: ''Phil Manning Band Featuring Midge Marsden (Polydor) *1978: " Crossing The Tracks" Country Flyers (SDL Music) *1981: "Midge Marsden Connection" (GTM/Mandrill) *1982: "12 Bars From Mars" (p)1982 Midge Marsden. *1985: "Let The Good Times Roll" The Rodger Fox Band and Midge Marsden (Circular Records) *1990: ''Burning Rain'' (Sony) *1993: "Are Back in Town" Midge Marsden and The Rodger Fox Band (TBone Records) *1993: "Travellin' On" (p)1993 Midge Marsden. *2002: "It Is What It Is" Midge Marsden & Bullfrog Rata (p)2002 Midge Marsden. *2007: "Travel 'N Time" (Liberation/SDL Music) *2014: "Back to the Well" (SDL Music) *2017: " The Midge Marsden Collection" (SDL Music)

References

External links

AudioCulture profile
*

— from Strawberry Fields
"Midge Marsden Tunes In"
— by Virginia Winder, for ''Puke Ariki''

— ''Scoop'' 1945 births Blues musicians Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit Living people New Zealand musicians People from New Plymouth {{NewZealand-musician-stub