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Jukebox Fever Comp!!

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Song List #1

Song List #2
Okie Doke
Gumbo Twins


Book Marc Bristol: (425) 788-2776 - ShakinBoss@aol.com E-mail Marc

Scroll down to see complete ordering list below (or simply click on the title here) for
Rockabilly Rhythm & Blues
(More Mp3 Clips here!!)

(below L: Marc sings "Sweet Honey Lulu" at Hemsby May 2000. M: Marc sings "Honey Don't" at the Rockabilly Ball 2007. R: "Hog For Ya" live at the Tractor from the CD!)

(6 complete songs at File' Gumbo's myspace page AND check out videos there!)
Here's the link to another YouTube video posted on Marc's Birthday (from the Rockabilly Ball Sun Records Tribute)
"Rock'n'Roll Ruby" - - http://pop.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0gQg8pXMac&feature=related

We Have Mp3 Clips of Some Marc Bristol Songs!! Download below & play or play online!

 Addicted To Kissin'

From Rockabilly
Rhythm & Blues

 Let's Shake It
From Rockabilly Rhythm & Blues AND Jukebox Fever

 Screaming In Tongues

From The Family Jewels

 Crazy Mama
From Big Big Love AND
On The Edge Of Romance

Circus Dog Blues

From Sweet Misery Moan

 Sweet Misery Moan

From Sweet Misery Moan
AND On The Edge Of Romance

 Fish In The Sea

From Sweet Misery Moan

 Glad You Come To Visit
From Bon Ton Two Tone
AND Glad You Come To Visit

My Way Is The Highway

From Travelin' Mood AND
On The Edge Of Romance

  Gonna Turn My Lovelight On

From Big Big Love AND
On The Edge Of Romance

  She Helped Me Get My Mind Off You

From On The Edge Of Romance

 Makin' Sweet Love
To You

From Mardi Gras In New Orleans
AND On The Edge Of Romance

Click here to hear part of

 Feel Like Flying

From Bluegrass Blend and -
Best of Marc Bristol Country, Vol. 2

Click here to hear part of

 Rollin' Along

From Best of Marc Bristol -
Country, Vol. 2

Click here to hear part of

 Don't Be Blue

From Live At The EMP (Marc on washboard, Doug Bright, vocals)

 The Best Of Everything

From On The Edge Of Romance

Click here for some of Marc Bristol's Song Lyrics!
See CD covers and ordering info below, at File Gumbo homepage, and King Noodle Homepage
(3 complete Marc Bristol songs at File' Gumbo's myspace page)

Singer, Songwriter, Bandleader

 

photo by Gaby Maag-Bristol

Marc Bristol

Born in Michigan, in a place called Muskegon (which means roughly swamp by the river in the native tongue), Marc Bristol comes from a long line of entertainers. His great grandfather had a wild west show and a caravan of wild animals like lions, tigers, bears and reptiles. Marc's great grandma was a "snake charmer" or reptile woman and her daughter, Marc's grandmother, sang and did a contortionist act in vaudeville as "Baby Nona". Marc's dad sang in a barbershop quartet (the Aire Tonics, Mich. State champs '56-'57), and his mother was a tap dancer. Because of the automobile and fruit industries, Michigan is full of all sorts of people with different backgrounds - hillbillies of every stripe, Okies, Arkies, Cajuns, Blacks, Chicanos, immigrants from everywhere. This made for a wide range of influences on a young writer and musician. To top it off young Bristol spent many evenings in the late '50s and early '60s tuning the AM radio band pulling in signals from far off radio stations bouncing off the ionosphere. In the process Marc listened to every kind of music on the airwaves at the time. He was already displaying a voracious appetite for variety.

Former Mother Earth News columnist and veteran Northwest performer/recording artist Marc Bristol has taught thousands of children (& adults too!) the basics of music making on the old homestead through his school assembly program “Homegrown Music - from the Horse & Buggy to the Edge of Space” Now the program is available in a 28 1/2 minute video for people of all ages who want to learn to make & play the washtub bass, washboard, jug and the musical saw - OR who just want to be entertained! Also featured in the program are songs from Marc Bristol with his jug band Blisswater and with Filé Gumbo - and now the DVD edition also features 47 more minutes of live performance video clips including Okie Doke and Filé Gumbo!
Click here to buy new Homegrown Music DVD!!!
Get ready to learn how to make your own entertainment from things you can find around the home, or scrounge from hardware stores and second hand shops! What better way to bring the friends & family together than a little home made musical jam!!

Here's our latest act!!

Marc & Gaby

The Honky Tonk Sweethearts

Photo taken at the Sweet Tequila Saloon near Seth in Northern Germany at our last gig on the June 2003 tour.

Gaby has recently taken up playing electric bass and was sitting in at our gigs at Big Al's Texas Barbeque the last couple months getting ready for the tour. On each of the Germany and Holland shows she sat in for about 3 songs a set - and the first unofficial Honky Tonk Sweethearts gig was the last part of Marc's set at the Big Bear Festival in Zuidlaren, Holland. Later the same day Gaby played a whole set on Marc's gig at the Ribhouse Desperado in Wesepe, Holland. She appears in several of the photos from the tour at our New Pictures site, including one from this Ribhouse gig (and now several other appearances)!

New Pictures!!

 


Bristol's career in music started in the mid-'60s playing rock and roll, but soon expanded to include country, blues and folk music. While in college Marc played in a few more bands, then turned to soloing on the college coffee-house circuit. After conferring himself with a "black belt" in journalism from the "school of hard knocks", he stuck out his thumb and he and his guitar took a couple turns around the U.S. looking for a suitable place in the country to live and write some songs. The place turned out to be Index,Washington, in the Cascade Mountains. After woodshedding (literally) for a couple of years, Marc unleashed himself on the unsuspecting Seattle music scene, starting modestly on the streets and in the cafes of the colorful Pike Place Market. It didn't take long before he was also playing coffeehouses colleges, and pubs. Then, when he met a couple of like-minded musicians, he formed The Okie Doke Stringband - the name gleaned from a collection of names used in jest by Marc's first band back in Muskegon (who jokingly called themselves "Okie Doke & The Local Yokels", among other names). That was the mid-'70s. Okie Doke

 

 Marc's first band the Moogaloonies
-alias Blue Blais and the Flash Gordon Four
-alias Okie Doke & the Local Yokels
­alias Potts & the Pans. 1965.

L. to R.: (kneeling) Marc Bristol, (standing) Phil Blais, Dick Vento, Terry Potts, Scott Gabrielson.

Terry went on to record on Fenton with the Aard Varks

Scott carried the band on a while as the Mad Hatters

Okie Doke still performs frequently (most recent recording Okie Doke "Live At The EMP), and Marc plays in a couple of other bands as well, most notably the Filé Gumbo Zydeco Band. At this writing Bristol's catalog of original tunes numbers over 90, and spans a wide variety of styles from rockabilly & country, to blues, R&B, calypso and beyond. Other artists are beginning to pick up on those tunes - Rockabilly star Ronnie Dawson released his version of Marc's "Sucker For A Cheap Guitar", and Marc's also had tunes done by Northwest R&B sensation Duffy Bishop and nationally syndicated radio stars Sandy Bradley & Small Wonders (their show was called "Potluck").

As if he wasn't busy enough performing and writing songs, Marc also wrote a regular column for The Mother Earth News for 6 years and now edits his own American roots music magazine called Blue Suede News - House Organ of the Church of Rock'n'Roll!!! Blue Suede News Home

 Marc's recordings include: Okie Doke Band (self-titled EP, 1981); This Feelin' (LP, 1982 - also with Okie Doke); WAM BAM BOOM (cassette, 1987); Filé Gumbo Zydeco Band (*cassette, 1988); Filé Gumbo LIVE! (*cassette, 1990); Feel Like Flying (cassette, 1992, with Okie Doke); Bon Ton Two Tone (*CD, cassette, 1992); Sweet Misery Moan (cassette, 1994, with Blisswater, CD - 2000); Big Big Love (*CD, Cassette, 1994); Let's Shake It! (cassette, 1995, with The Shack Shakers); Mardi Gras In New Orleans (*CD, Cassette, 1996); Rockabilly Rhythm & Blues (CD, 1997); Homegrown Music (Book, 1982 / videocassette, 1994) ; (*with File Gumbo); Great Northwest Country (compilation, 1982); Seattle R&B Volume 1 (*compilation, 1992); All American Hardcore Hillbillies (compilation, 1995); Turning The World Blue (Gene Vincent Tribute disc, 1996); Rockabilly Hall Of Fame, Vol. 1 (1998); Travelin'Mood (* CD, 2000); Jukebox Fever (CD compilation, 2002), On The Edge Of Romance: The Best of Marc Bristol - Country (CD, 2003); Bluegrass Blend (CD, 2003): Glad You Come To Visit: The Best Of Marc Bristol - Country, Vol. 2 (CD 2004); 30 Years!!! Bear Family Records (CD box set BCD 17015 PR). Marc has also appeared on recordings by other artists, like Jef Jaisun, Gary Cooper, Filucy Hootchie Cootchie Band, Jeanne Towne, J.W. Sparrow and others. Titles in bold type available here - order below!

 

Marc's Country CD (Vol. 1)!
Ordering info below!

Click here to order On The Edge Of Romance securely online through Paypal (and see the list of songs!)


Marc has appeared on radio and TV, at many festivals and in concert with a wide variety of artists, including: The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Reba McEntire, The Marshall Tucker Band, Jerry Jeff Walker, Buckwheat Zydeco, Queen Ida, Katie Webster, DaveVan Ronk, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, John Hartford, GlenYarbrough, Tom Chapin, Dan Hicks, Utah Phillips, Kate Wolf, The Cheap Suit Serenaders,The Five Blind Boys, Moses Rascoe, Valdy, Roy Forbes, Freddie Bell, the Olympics & many others! Most recently (April 2005) Marc appeared on the Rockin' 50s Fest II at the Oneida Casino in Green Bay, Wisconsin along with a huge number of Rockabilly, early Rock'n'Roll and Country music luminaries. New Pictures!!

 

 One of Marc's recent promo shot's (photo by Gaby Maag-Bristol), taken for the Hemsby 24 Rockabilly Weekender (England) program. The guitar is a new Telestar, modelled after the Danelectro manufactured Silvertone that was Marc's first decent guitar. The Telestar features better tuners, a tunable bridge, a longer and less clunky neck and some different paint choices than the original. It was acquired in yet another swap with Emerald City Guitars in Seattle, in trade for a set of Shure Vocal Master speaker columns and a Lyle copy of a Stratocaster. Air Canada wouldn't let Marc carry this one on the plane in a gig bag, so he brought Old Faithful, the '57 Harmatone Custom (actually a Silvertone made by Harmony) pictured above in the photo with the 'cowboy hat.

 The Aire-Tonics - Gerry Guimond - lead, Tom Damm - baritone, Bill Wickstrom - tenor, and Marc's dad Clare Bristol - bass. They were Michigan District (now the Pioneer District) champs for '57, crowned in late 1956! This is the cover shot of our family's "personal edition" 20 song CD of performances from 1958 (entitled "Putting The Harm In Harmony"), the year they broke up when Bill moved to Detroit from the group home base of Muskegon, Michigan. As you can see showmanship was a big part of their act. The Aire-Tonics' repertoire was eclectic, and fairly swingin', and ran the gamut "from Bach, Barbershop, Boogie and Bop".
 Chattanooga Shoeshine Boy
mp3 Clip! check the "doo-wops" in the middle!

 

 

Marc's Great Grandpa Fletcher Fowler owned a circus! Here they are headed on tour April 13, 1934

 At right: Baby Nona. Marc's grandmother at about age 5. She sang and did a contortionist act in her father's vaudeville and carnival shows. Marc's great-grandfather Fletcher Fowler operated the Fowler Brothers Circus, and was a friend to the famous Keaton Vaudeville family, which included young Buster Keaton, later to become one of the greatest silent film comedians, and even made talkies, including a great episode of Twilight Zone, in which he hijacked a time machine and returned to the era in which he created his own fame. Baby Nona loved dressing the baby alligators from her father's wild animal exhibits in doll clothes. We wish we had a photo for you! Watch out Barbie!!!

As you can see Marc Bristol comes from a long line of entertainers!

 

 

 Marc's CD Sweet Misery Moan is available. 15 songs in all, 13 original, in various styles of country blues ranging from Piedmont, Delta and Texas influences to Hank Williams style. Click here to order "Sweet Misery Moan" securely online through Paypal (and see the list of songs!

Bookings: (425) 788-2776 - ShakinBoss@aol.com E-mail Marc

Price List And Order Links Below

Okie Doke Band EP Limited supply! photocopy sleeve

- $10 ppd. in U.S., Add $2 for overseas air.

 New!! Okie Doke Live at the EMP Click Here to Buy "Live At The EMP now securely online via Paypal!! (and see the list of songs

- $11 ppd. in U.S., Add $2 for overseas air.

This Feelin' LP - Marc Bristol w/ Okie Doke & Friends

- $6 ppd. in U.S., Add $3 overseas, $2 surface.

Sweet Misery Moan - Marc Bristol with Blisswater, country blues , CD

- $16 ppd. U.S.. Add $2 for overseas air. Click here to order "Sweet Misery Moan" securely online through Paypal

Rockabilly Rhythm & Blues - Marc Bristol & The Shack Shakers - CD Rockabilly Rhythm & Blues

- $16 ppd. in the U.S., $11 cassette, add $2 for overseas air Click here for a picture of the cover and list of the songs AND to order online securely through Paypal!

On The Edge Of Romance: The Best Of Marc Bristol - Country - CD 14 tracks - 6 Newly Recorded, Unreleased!!

- $16 ppd. in the U.S Click here to order On The Edge Of Romance securely online through Paypal! (and see the list of songs)

  NEW!!! Marc Bristol - Glad You Come To Visit: The Best Of Marc Bristol - Country, Vol. 2  Click here to order Glad You Come To Visit securely online through Paypal! (and see the list of songs)

 - $16 ppd. in the U.S., $2 for overseas air (2nd $16 CD only $10 + $1 shipping!)

 Bluegrass Blend - Marc Bristol & Okie Doke (tracks from "This Feelin'" and "Feel Like Flying" compiled to highlight acoustic country with dobro, banjo, manolin & fiddle. 12 tracks

 - $11 ppd. in theU.S. Add $2 for overseas shipping. Click Here to Buy "Bluegrass Blend" now via Paypal!! (and see the list of songs)

 Let The Good Times Roll - Filé Gumbo, the Early Years (pre-drummer - washboard percussion only. Combines tracks from the band's first 2 cassettes)- CD

 -$12 ppd. in the U.S.,add $2 for overseas air Click here to buy Let The Good Times Roll now via Paypal!! (and see the list of songs)

Bon Tone Two Tone - Filé Gumbo Zydeco Band CD Buy Bon Ton Two Tone Now via Paypal!! (and see the list of songs)

- $16 ppd. in U.S. add $2 for overseas air.

Big Big Love - Filé Gumbo Zydeco Band CD Buy Big Big Love Now via Paypal!! (and see the list of songs)

- $16 ppd. in U.S. add $2 for overseas air.

Mardi Gras In New Orleans - Filé Gumbo CD, cassette Buy Mardi Gras In New Orleans Now via Paypal!! (and see the list of songs)

- $16 ppd. in U.S. add $2 for overseas air.

Travelin' Mood - Filé Gumbo CD

- $16 ppd. in the U.S Buy Travelin' Mood Now via Paypal!! (and see the list of songs)

Homegrown Music - by Marc Bristol, 129 p. book

- $10 ppd. in U.S., Inquire for overseas air price. E-mail Marc

Homegrown Music - from the Horse and Buggy to the Edge of Space - 28 minute video on homemade instruments (washtub bass, washboard, jug & musical saw) also featuring Filé Gumbo, Blisswater, Okie Doke. soon available on DVD- inquire if interested!

- $17 ppd. in U.S. VHS - PAL unavailable.

Inquire for overseas air price. E-mail Marc

Make checks to:

Blue Suede News

Box 25, Duvall, WA 98019-0025 U.S.A.

1-866-420-2776 or 425-788-2776

Office Hours: Noon to 8pm West Coast time

or call anytime, we'll get back to you

We now take Paypal - Paypal payments go to shakinboss@aol.com

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