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

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

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 Moturoa is a coastal suburb of New Plymouth, in the western North Island of New Zealand. It is located to the west of the city centre, bordering Port Taranaki and the Sugar Loaf Islands. One of the islands, Moturoa, the largest, shares it ...

New Plymouth New Plymouth ( mi, Ngāmotu) 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, Devon from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. ...

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

, 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, or 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 Africa ...

. 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 with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

. Marsden has toured the US four times, and each time he has played with and befriended artists such as

Little Willy Foster Willy Foster (April 20, 1922 – November 25, 1987), known as Little Willy Foster (or Little Willie Foster), was an American Chicago blues harmonicist, singer, and songwriter. Biography Foster was born in Dublin, Mississippi, to Major Foster an ...

, Bobby Mack,

Ronnie Taylor Ronald Charles Taylor BSC (27 October 1924 – 3 August 2018) was a British cinematographer, best known for his collaborations with directors Richard Attenborough and Dario Argento. Throughout his career, he was nominated for two BAFTA Awar ...

, 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 ...

. 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 (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

in 1996, from where he graduated with a Diploma in Southern Studies, and more recently he has tutored at

Waikato Institute of Technology The Waikato Institute of Technology, also known as Wintec, is an institute of technology based in New Zealand's Waikato region. Wintec offers over 130 degrees, diplomas and certificates. Wintec specialises in applied tertiary training for nurses ...

in "Bluesology". In the

2006 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2006 in some Commonwealth realms were announced (on 31 December 2005) in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Grenada, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, and Saint Christopher and Nevis to cel ...

, Marsden was appointed a

Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have ren ...

, for services to music. Marsden was a friend of

Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (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. Although his mainstream career spanned only seven years, ...

; 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

*1990: ''Burning Rain'' (Sony) *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) *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