Bex Marshall - "House Of Mercy"
Whether it’s for friends visiting her at home or folks she’s just met in a pub, Bex Marshall tries to perform in front of people every single day. “I’ll play them some songs,” she says. “I’ve found nothing more valuable than playing in front of an audience—it enhances my music.”
Marshall’s never been one to shy away from a crowd, and listening to the skillful bluesy twang of her guitar and the matching richness and intensity of her voice, one would be foolish to urge her otherwise. Her latest album, House of Mercy, merges every bit of blues, soul, roots, folk, and ragtime that has influenced her to create a colorful, fiery sound that matches her equally exuberant personality. The concept for the album came from her U.K. home base, with a little help from her husband and friends.
“House of Mercy is the name of the radio station that we run from our home,” Marshall explains. “We’ve had hundreds of musicians come through our doors and this album is a tribute to the music that goes on in our home and the music that surrounds us. The musicians that contributed to this are those who have come through, so it’s very special to us.”
The end result of months of writing and recording in her London home studio is a powerful album that displays her prowess as a guitarist and songwriter, and songs like “Gone Fishin’,” “Love,” and “Tough Times” exhibit her masterful use of slide guitar, soloing, and a unique approach to fingerpicking.
“I tried a lot of new techniques on this album,” says Marshall. “I’ve been developing a style that I use on my solo performances where it’s almost a ragtime technique with a percussive feel to it. I play with all the fingers on my right hand and I have really long nails, so I use all of them as a plectrum. I use a quick little butterfly frailing with pull-offs all over it, and that gets a lot of notes out at once.”
Her maturity and evolution as a guitarist is evident on this album, as her playing surpasses even that on her highly praised previous album, 2008’s Kitchen Table. Her diligence toward practicing her craft propelled her to create a name for herself early on in her career, though it took an unfortunate bit of tragedy to push her to realize her full potential.
“I wasn’t confident in doing lead parts or two-lined riffs in the beginning of my playing, but after my first album my bass player and producer Roland Harris committed suicide and I was the one who found him,” she says. “It really affected me, because he was such a good friend and my staunchest supporter. Within my anger I realized that I would play my own bass lines from there on out, so I began using my thumb technique to get the bass riff on top of the guitar riff. If he’s going to leave me, I’m going to do it myself. I’m sure he’s up there laughing at me now.”
Marshall’s weapons of choice to convey her complex and rhythmic riffs are her collection of Ozark electro-acoustic resonator guitars. Resonator guitars have a long history in ragtime, roots, and blues music, and their twangy sound and rustic timbre give Marshall’s music the authentic tone that her style calls for.
“The first band I took notice of that used a resonator guitar was Dire Straits,” says Marshall, “and I just loved how it sounded. I always thought they were cool-looking guitars, but when I first played one, I knew it was the only guitar I wanted to play. It’s got a dirty tone and it feels good to strum and it reacts to fingerpicking really well. The slide sounds great on it, but I try not to overplay with it because I love simple slide lines where one note will make you scream.”
Bex Marshall’s Gear
Guitars
Ozark 3515E Electro-Acoustic Biscuit Resonator, Ozark 3515 BTEC Slimline Resonator, Ozark 3616 Deluxe Biscuit Resonator, Eccleshall Electric Lady 103 Hardtail, 1963 Gibson Hummingbird
Amps
Fender Frontman 25R and 65R, Vox AC30
Effects
Marshall Bluesbreaker II Pedal
Strings
Martin Custom Light .011-.052
While resonator guitars are likely the only ones you’ll see her working onstage, it was an acoustic guitar that first piqued her interest in music. As a young girl growing up in the U.K., Marshall found the key to her destiny in an unlikely place.
“The exact moment that I first began playing a guitar was when I opened an old cupboard under the stairs of my home when I was 8 years old and found an abandoned guitar in there,” recalls Marshall. “It only had two strings and in that moment I knew it was mine. So I would sit in the kitchen and just strum away on it, and I realized I had urgency and a need to be able to play it. Once I met people who played, I learned very quickly on it. I immediately knew that was what I wanted to do.”
And even with the notoriety she receives for her playing, Marshall continually strives to better it, practicing every moment she can. But it’s more than recognition that drives her; it’s her love of playing that still excites her today.
“I pick my guitar up every single day because I need to connect with it constantly,” she shares. “I’m always writing new stuff, especially when I’m supposed to be practicing for a show. [Laughs.] Ever since I first held a guitar, it’s been greed more than need and it drives me every day. I want to learn everything—musically I want it all.”
YouTube It
Bex Marshall shows her
serious slide chops while
performing
her new single, “Love,” in her
home studio.
Bex plays “Little Wing” into
“Purple Haze” during a 2009
gig, starting the transition
around 3:00.
This collection of clips
includes upbeat grooves from
Bex and her band playing the
2010 Maryport Blues Festival.
Duane Denison of the Jesus Lizard, EGC Chessie in hands, coaxing some nasty tones from his Hiwatt.
The Jesus Lizard’s sixth album, Blue, served as the band’s final statement from the frontlines of noisy rock for the next 26 years. By the time of their dissolution in 1999, they’d earned a reputation for extreme performances chock full of hard-hitting, machine-like grooves delivered by bassist David Wm. Sims and, at their conclusion, drummer Mac McNeilly, at times aided and at other times punctured by the frontline of guitarist Duane Denison’s incisive, dissonant riffing, and presided over by the cantankerous howl of vocalist David Yow. In the years since, performative, thrilling bands such as Pissed Jeans, METZ, and Idles have built upon the Lizard’s musical foundation.
Denison has kept himself plenty busy over the last couple decades, forming the avant-rock supergroup Tomahawk—with vocalist Mike Patton, bassist Trevor Dunn (both from Mr. Bungle), and drummer John Stanier of Helmet—and alongside various other projects including Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers and Hank Williams III. The Jesus Lizard eventually reunited, but until now have only celebrated their catalog, never releasing new jams.
The Jesus Lizard, from left: bassist David Wm. Sims, singer David Yow, drummer Mac McNeilly, and guitarist Duane Denison.
Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins
Back in 2018, Denison, hanging in a hotel room with Yow, played a riff on his unplugged electric guitar that caught the singer’s ear. That song, called “West Side,” will remain unreleased for now, but Denison explains: “He said, ‘Wow, that’s really good. What is that?’ And I said, ‘It’s just some new thing. Why don’t we do an album?’” From those unassuming beginnings, the Jesus Lizard’s creative juices started flowing.
So, how does a band—especially one who so indelibly captured the ineffable energy of live rock performance—prepare to get a new record together 26 years after their last? Back in their earlier days, the members all lived together in a band house, collectively tending to the creative fire when inspiration struck. All these years later, they reside in different cities, so their process requires sending files back and forth and only meeting up for occasional demo sessions over the course of “three or four years.”
“When the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.” —Duane Denison
the Jesus Lizard "Alexis Feels Sick"
Distance creates an obstacle to striking while the proverbial iron is hot, but Denison has a method to keep things energized: “Practice loud.” The guitarist professes the importance of practice, in general, and especially with a metronome. “We keep very detailed records of what the beats per minute of these songs are,” he explains. “To me, the way to do it is to run it to a Bluetooth speaker and crank it, and then crank your amp. I play a little at home, but when the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.”
It’s a proven solution. On Rack—recorded at Patrick Carney’s Audio Eagle studio with producer Paul Allen—the band sound as vigorous as ever, proving they’ve not only remained in step with their younger selves, but they may have surpassed it with faders cranked. “Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style,” explains Allen. “The conviction in his playing that he is known for from his recordings in the ’80s and ’90s is still 100-percent intact and still driving full throttle today.”
“I try to be really, really precise,” he says. “I think we all do when it comes to the basic tracks, especially the rhythm parts. The band has always been this machine-like thing.” Together, they build a tension with Yow’s careening voice. “The vocals tend to be all over the place—in and out of tune, in and out of time,” he points out. “You’ve got this very free thing moving around in the foreground, and then you’ve got this very precise, detailed band playing behind it. That’s why it works.”
Before Rack, the Jesus Lizard hadn’t released a new record since 1998’s Blue.
Denison’s guitar also serves as the foreground foil to Yow’s unhinged raving, as on “Alexis Feels Sick,” where they form a demented harmony, or on the midnight creep of “What If,” where his vibrato-laden melodies bolster the singer’s unsettled, maniacal display. As precise as his riffs might be, his playing doesn’t stay strictly on the grid. On the slow, skulking “Armistice Day,” his percussive chording goes off the rails, giving way to a solo that slices that groove like a chef’s knife through warm butter as he reorganizes rock ’n’ roll histrionics into his own cut-up vocabulary.
“During recording sessions, his first solo takes are usually what we decide to keep,” explains Allen. “Listen to Duane’s guitar solos on Jack White’s ‘Morning, Noon, and Night,’ Tomahawk’s ‘Fatback,’ and ‘Grind’ off Rack. There’s a common ‘contained chaos’ thread among them that sounds like a harmonic Rubik’s cube that could only be solved by Duane.”
“Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style.” —Rack producer Paul Allen
To encapsulate just the right amount of intensity, “I don’t over practice everything,” the guitarist says. Instead, once he’s created a part, “I set it aside and don’t wear it out.” On Rack, it’s obvious not a single kilowatt of musical energy was lost in the rehearsal process.
Denison issues his noisy masterclass with assertive, overdriven tones supporting his dissonant voicings like barbed wire on top of an electric fence. The occasional application of slapback delay adds a threatening aura to his exacting riffage. His tones were just as carefully crafted as the parts he plays, and he relied mostly on his signature Electrical Guitar Company Chessie for the sessions, though a Fender Uptown Strat also appears, as well as a Taylor T5Z, which he chose for its “cleaner, hyper-articulated sound” on “Swan the Dog.” Though he’s been spotted at recent Jesus Lizard shows with a brand-new Powers Electric—he points out he played a demo model and says, “I just couldn’t let go of it,” so he ordered his own—that wasn’t until tracking was complete.
Duane Denison's Gear
Denison wields his Powers Electric at the Blue Room in Nashville last June.
Photo by Doug Coombe
Guitars
- Electrical Guitar Company Chessie
- Fender Uptown Strat
- Taylor T5Z
- Gibson ES-135
- Powers Electric
Amps
- Hiwatt Little J
- Hiwatt 2x12 cab with Fane F75 speakers
- Fender Super-Sonic combo
- Early ’60s Fender Bassman
- Marshall 1987X Plexi Reissue
- Victory Super Sheriff head
- Blackstar HT Stage 60—2 combos in stereo with Celestion Neo Creamback speakers and Mullard tubes
Effects
- Line 6 Helix
- Mantic Flex Pro
- TC Electronic G-Force
- Menatone Red Snapper
Strings and Picks
- Stringjoy Orbiters .0105 and .011 sets
- Dunlop celluloid white medium
- Sun Studios yellow picks
He ran through various amps—Marshalls, a Fender Bassman, two Fender Super-Sonic combos, and a Hiwatt Little J—at Audio Eagle. Live, if he’s not on backline gear, you’ll catch him mostly using 60-watt Blackstar HT Stage 60s loaded with Celestion Neo Creambacks. And while some boxes were stomped, he got most of his effects from a Line 6 Helix. “All of those sounds [in the Helix] are modeled on analog sounds, and you can tweak them endlessly,” he explains. “It’s just so practical and easy.”
The tools have only changed slightly since the band’s earlier days, when he favored Travis Beans and Hiwatts. Though he’s started to prefer higher gain sounds, Allen points out that “his guitar sound has always had teeth with a slightly bright sheen, and still does.”
“Honestly, I don’t think my tone has changed much over the past 30-something years,” Denison says. “I tend to favor a brighter, sharper sound with articulation. Someone sent me a video I had never seen of myself playing in the ’80s. I had a band called Cargo Cult in Austin, Texas. What struck me about it is it didn’t sound terribly different than what I sound like right now as far as the guitar sound and the approach. I don’t know what that tells you—I’m consistent?”
YouTube It
The Jesus Lizard take off at Nashville’s Blue Room this past June with “Hide & Seek” from Rack.
Phat Machine
The Phat Machine
The Phat Machine is designed to deliver the tone and responsiveness of a vintage germanium fuzz with improved temperature stability with no weird powering issues. Loaded with both a germanium and a silicon transistor, the Phat Machine offers the warmth and cleanup of a germanium fuzz but with the bite of a silicon pedal. It utilizes classic Volume and Fuzz control knobs, as well as a four-position Thickness control to dial-in any guitar and amp combo. Also included is a Bias trim pot and a Kill switch that allows battery lovers to shut off the battery without pulling the input cord.
Silk Worm Deluxe Overdrive
The Silk Worm Deluxe -- along with its standard Volume/Gain/Tone controls -- has a Bottom trim pot to dial in "just the right amount of thud with no mud at all: it’s felt more than heard." It also offers a Studio/Stage diode switch that allows you to select three levels of compression.
Both pedals offer the following features:
- 9-volt operation via standard DC external supply or internal battery compartment
- True bypass switching with LED indicator
- Pedalboard-friendly top mount jacks
- Rugged, tour-ready construction and super durable powder coated finish
- Made in the USA
Static Effectors’ Street Series pedals carry a street price of $149 each. They are available at select retailers and can also be purchased directly from the Static Effectors online store at www.staticeffectors.com.
This outing of Dipped In Tone kicks off with an exciting update from Zach Broyles’ camp: He’s opening a brick-and-mortar guitar shop in Nashville, called High Voltage Guitars. Opening on October 8, the store will carry gear from Two-Rock, Divided By 13, Dr. Z, Castedosa, Fano, Novo, and of course Mythos Pedals. Zach hints that there might be some handwired JHS pedals from Josh Scott himself, too, and Rhett reveals that he plans to consign some of his guitars at the shop.
The business side of Zach’s new venture brings them to a key piece of today’s episode: Rhett and Zach aren’t running charities. They do what they do to make money; guitars, gear, podcasting, and content creation are their literal jobs. And they’re not as glamorous and breezy as most armchair commentators might guess.
Want to do what Rhett and Zach do? Welcome to the club. The guitar-influencer field is what one might call “oversaturated” at the moment, and it’s difficult to break out—but not impossible. As our hosts explain, it requires putting in 60-hour work weeks, a diverse skillset, a knack for catching people’s attention, and a certain level of genuineness. Rhett knows this path well, and he has hard-earned advice for staying true to oneself while building a following in the gear world.
Tune in to learn why Rhett thinks Fretboard Summit, a three-day guitar festival organized by Fretboard Journal, blows NAMM out of the water and builds legitimate connections between guitarists, and catch the duo dipping a Dick Dale-inspired, all-Fender rig.
