Mississippi Brett Marvin
Mississippi Brett Marvin

Mississippi Brett Marvin

As recalled by Jim Pitts who still treasures fond memories of the man, whom he first met on his initial trip to Mississippi in the mid 1960s while researching the origins of the Delta Blues.                          

Mississippi Brett Marvin used to carry his guitar, an old National, in a manure sack. He was a real person and a legend in his time. He used to hitchhike around the Mississippi Delta, spending all the money that he scraped together on wine, play in places no better described as low places, and sleeping rough on the ground.

When asked what he thought of all those commercial people who went around wearing velvet trousers trying to be the flashiest guitarists in the world, driving fast cars, and just playing the blues to make bundles of money.

He replied “They stink! a little like me I suppose, when I haven’t had a bath for a few weeks!” and then immediately shot off like a thunderbolt to the nearby gents. He knew how to be humble when it mattered.

On most occasions as Jim recalls, when he met up with him, he smelled and was sure that he was infested with vermin. So what? everybody who ever met him loved the old boy and was considered by all as a bluesman’s bluesman.
Mississippi Brett Marvin

 With faithful companion, Hairy

During the early days of the band when they were rehearsing, Jim used to keep the rest of the original band members: Peter, Graham, Keith, and John Randall, intrigued and amused with anecdotes of the great man.

As a result, they decided to call the band Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts. The name is partly a tribute to the old boy, and the ‘thunderbolt” is a tribute to the speed which he used to travel to the liquor store whenever he was fortunate to be given some cash. The greatest tribute to the man must be that the majority of the band’s fans now simply refer to them as ‘The Bretts’.

At the time, the name also served as a reflex against the names of other bands,  such as Peppermint-Bicycle / Hairy-Chrome-Orange etc.

Obviously the success of the band and frequency of live bookings since the band went ‘into production’ has since prevented Jim making any subsequent further nostalgic trips to try and look up Mississippi Brett Marvin.

Jim estimates that he must have passed away by now, because if not, he would be almost 100 years old today, and his lifestyle could not possibly have sustained him!

Unfortunately, Jim was never able to personally record any of his music, or for that matter, manage to find or purchase any albums that he allegedly recorded, but reckons that his style of playing was similar to that of the immortal Robert Johnson.

MISSISSIPPI BRETT MARVIN - RIP