New Blues – Bex Marshall – The House of Mercy
Bex Marshall’s album The House of Mercy caught my eye a couple of weeks ago and I had no idea how he artist was, so I went to MOG put on the album and was blown away by the title track!! So after being sufficiently impressed by the first listen to the album I went the Bex’s website and discovered that Bex was born in Devonshire England and now lives in London. She is the offspring of a diverse family one side being blue blooded landed gentry, the other Irish Romany. She’s been playing guitar since her Uncle Dave presented her with one on her 11th birthday. By the age of 18, she was a trained croupier, traveling the world working gaming tables on cruise liners to Park Lane, even dealing illegal poker games in Amsterdam. She hitch hiked the coast of Australia on cattle trains and always with a guitar on her back living and storing tales. The House of Mercy is her sophomore release coming on the heels of her successful début album, Kitchen Table, which rose to 13 on the USA ‘UK artists chart’ and number 20 in the USA national Americana Music Association Chart. (AMA Chart). The House of Mercy is now 31 on the Roots Music Report Blues Chart, a couple of weeks ago it was higher than that!
The House of Mercy features The Bex Marshall Band composed of Barry Payne (acoustic bass), Crispin Taylor (drums), Danny Bryan (percussion), Toby Baker (keyboards) and newest edition, gospel singer Shola Adegorove. They are helped out by guests musicians include: Don Wayne Reno (banjo), Dale Reno (mandolin) & Jake Byers (acoustic bass) all from Hayseed Dixie. B J Cole (dobro), Eileen Healy (fiddle) and Brigitte DeMeyer adding backing vocals.
This Day in History – George Eastman committed suicide
On this date in 1932, George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak committed suicide. This is one of those events about which I say “Did I know that?? The answer, I think, is no! Anyway, over the last years of his life Eastman suffered from chronic pain in this back. He could hardly stand and walked in a slow shuffle. So, on March 14, 1932, Eastman committed suicide with a single gunshot to the heart, leaving a note which read, “To my friends: my work is done. Why wait
This Day in History – Greenwood patents Earmuffs – Herschel discovers Uranus!
While December 21 may be Chester Greenwood Day in Farmington Maine, it was on this day in 1877 that Chester patented earmuffs! According to Wikipedia Greenwood:
invented the earmuff in 1873, at the age of 15.[1] He reportedly came up with the idea while ice skating, and had his grandmother sew tufts of fur between loops of wire.[2] His patent was for improved ear protectors. He manufactured these ear protectors, providing jobs for people in the Farmington area, for nearly 60 years.[1] Read More
Tuesday – 3/12/13 Reads – Warren Takes on Banks, Corporations and Taxes, Ar-15 Raffle? and The Cost of War!
Treacherous Beauty – Peggy Shippen, the Woman Behind Benedict Arnold’s Plot to Betray Anerica
So in Book No 11 for 2013 Treacherous Beauty, the authors Mark Jacobs and Stephen H. Case make the case (no pun intended, well maybe a little) that the subject of the book was the Scarlett O’Hara of the Revolutionary War: “a woman whose survival skills trumped all other values. Had she been a man, she might have been arrested, tried and executed. And she might have become famous. Instead, her role was minimized and she was allowed to recede into the background – with a generous British pension in hand” the Treacherous Beauty is Peggy Shippen, Mrs. Benedict Arnold!
Life’s Soundtrack – ARZ’s Turn of the Tide makes the miles go by!
Wow, two runs in three days! A first for 2013! Tonight I decided that the run would be 4 miles, but I didn’t want it to a run that I usually do, because then I start comparing my times now, with past runs and start thinking, I am old and slow! Anyway, I laid out a 4 mile course slightly different then normal – hey how much can I change it up in a one square mile town!! While it wasn’t the easiest four mile run ever, it really wasn’t, too bad considering how little I’ve run this winter. The pace was just slightly over 10 minutes per mile, which I’ll take at this point in time!
A not so good day – but some good music from Progression by Failure
POk so obviously the problem I had yesterday i.e. no power to my computer has not been resolved. it is clear from the fact that I am writing my first post of the day at 11:20 pm! Of course it didn’t help that I somehow wiped out this website this morning and when it was restored this afternoon it was restored back to March 8th! Anyway the new site is socialstudious.us and will be the home for politics, and the rest of the social sciences! I will try to keep this site for mysteries, music and family!
Townes Van Zandt – March 7, 1944
Townes Van Zandt – Dean of Americana Songwriting (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997)
On March 7, 1944, Townes Van Zandt was born. I am one of those people who just fairly recently discovered Townes’ music. I knew his name , but it really wasn’t until after Willie recored “Pancho & Lefty that I became aware of his immense talent. The first album that I bought was A Far Cry from Dead which was released in 1999 after his death. Since then I’ve gone back and added several albums to my library. Some background information from Wikipedia, for those who don’t know Townes:
