MIDGE MARSDEN: TRAVEL 'N TIME
Midge Marsden is one of those perennial performers who's always been there, and you somehow sense always will be. Travel 'N Time, part of Liberation Music's acoustic series, quickly establishes a rootsey blues feeling. Serving as a retrospective of Midge's career, it includes such songs as Sea Cruise dating from his sixties band Bari and the Breakaways, through to Travellin' On, penned as a TV commercial jingle by Murray Grindlay (and featuring Stevie Ray Vaughan!), but way too good to stay as such. Also here is a stunning rendition of Burning Rain with assistance from The Lady Killers, and a take of the Leadbelly classic The Midnight Special which evokes a more original feel than many contemporary remakes. A host of notable musos augment Marsden's vocals and very able harmonica. The album was engineered by Olly Harmer at Auckland's The Lab studio, then mastered by Steve McGough and Simon Lynch at Stebbings. If there's a criticism of this album, it's that the recording quality is so good it loses some of the lo-fi atmosphere of vintage blues. But then no one's gonna deliberately make a recording sound so bad eh? This is a great album — Midge has still got it.
• Tim Page

MIDGE MARSDEN: BURNING RAIN
"Midge Turns Up The Heat", "Magic Rain From Marsden", "Marsden's New Blues", "Burning Rain Is A Masterpiece"...these were just some of the music press responses when kiwi legend Midge Marsden released 'Burning Rain' via Sony Music in January 1991. With Marsden having already received the ultimate accolade in NZ music when he was voted "New Zealand Entertainer Of The Year" in October 1990, 'Burning Rain', with it's unique blend of "classic" kiwi rock and Midge's first loves - the blues and r&b, was an immediate national success achieving "gold" status while the single "Burning Rain" spent twelve weeks in the Top 50 Charts. Unavailable for some time, this fine album now gets the re-issue treatment from the lovely people at Jayrem Records (it has been the most requested re-issue Jayrem has had the pleasure of releasing) with a Limited Edition eight track live album recorded by Radio Hauraki in 2002 (including Marsden interpretations on the blues standard "Before You Accuse Me", Paul Kelly's "To Her Door" and Max Merritt's "Slipping Away"). This excellent slice of pop "kiwiana" belongs in the collection of any self respecting NZ rock fan - particularly if your interest lies in the blues-rock direction of things. Marsden will be touring nationally throughout the summer months too, so why not catch this legend in his live enviroment as well.
• smokecds.com