Midge Marsden

30 May

After stints with The Phil Manning Band in Australia, Midge Marsden hit his stride with The Midge Marsden Connection and his 12 Bars from Mars album in the early 80s, before going on to travel the world, studying and playing the blues whilst meeting and becoming good friends with the likes of Mississippi Willie Foster, Bobby Mack & Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Midge is well known for the track Travellin On, featuring Stevie Ray Vaughan, written by Murray Grindlay, which was recorded and filmed for the Europa commercial in 1987. When living in Texas, Midge would often stay at Stevie’s house as well as tour with him, playing harmonica.

Midge’s biggest commercial success then came with the release of Burning Rain in 1990, the iconic single and album which went on to achieve Gold certified sales in New Zealand.

Midge appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to music in 2006 and in 2018 was presented with the President's Medallion from the Variety Artists Club of New Zealand. Midge contributed to developing ‘the Blues’ in other New Zealand artists while a tutor at the Waikato Institute of Technology’s ‘Bluesology’ course - influencing many young players, including LAB’s Joel Shadbolt.

Based on the very successful ‘Travel n' Time’ album released through Liberation Music in 2008 , Midge then started work (in 2012) on the concept album ‘Back to the Well’. In collaboration with songwriters Neil Hannan, Arthur Baysting and Alex Deane, Midge drew from life experiences growing up in Taranaki, performing and touring in America, his early music life in Wellington. Also included on the new album are cover versions of some much-loved songs that ‘fit the concept’ of the record including a track by the late Mark Sandman of Morphine, Presbyterian reggae from Jimmy Cliff, gospel on 'I'll Drown in My Own Tears' and a treatment of an early Rolling Stones hit (written by Jerry Ragavoy) - 'Time is On My Side', which takes it back to its soul roots.

'Back To The Well' was released in 2015 to favourable reviews and was warmly greeted with two sold out shows in hometown New Plymouth plus headline performances around the country including the Bay Of Islands 'Jazz & Blues Festival'. Although Midge is rumoured to have retired he is still recording with SDL Music and playing live gigs around the country.

Midges latest release (2024) is from a 2015 ‘Music in Parks’ Live Concert at the Blockhouse Bay Beach Reserve in Auckland. It was just after the release of the afore-mentioned ‘Back To The Well’ and features many tracks from that album.