The American roots of Britain's Bex Marshall

I've got to tell you today about a less-than-new album by an artist whose name you may have never heard, hoping that you'll want to hear her fine musical self.

British singer-songwriter-guitarist Bex Marshall isn't exactly a blues artist in the traditional sense, but like a lot of other Brits before her (who were ofen hip to the American blues scene before we were), she's taken American roots and blues and country music and blended it into an elegant emotional exploration.

She uses her considerable songwriting skills, her even more considerable acoustic resonator skills (a slide on her little finger), and adds them to gravelly vocals that combine folk, country and blues with a little rock, into an extremely personal and powerful music.

He latest album, last year's "Kitchen Table," from the British House of Mercy label, is filled with this kind of music. It's thoughtful wordplay,  understated vocal passion and  expressive guitar work fit together in a little gem of an album. Each song is her own, all filed with the power and the spirit of the music she obviously loves.

All of this came to my attention recently  through the efforts of Howlin' Wuelf Media in New York,  which passed on  information that Marshall is about to embark on her first U.S. tour, hitting about a dozen cities across the country. Alas, the closest she gets to Pittsburgh is Phoenixville, Pa., and Washington, D.C., next week. That's too bad. She'd be a perfect fit in an intimate spot like Club Cafe on the South Side.

She hasn't been recording a long time, in the grand scheme of things, as her early years seemed to have been spent wandering Europe as a croupier with a guitar strapped to her back. But in the past decade, she's flourished, at least on the other side of the pond. We're about to give her some attention here, where roots music is actually rooted. Let's hope she catches on, and spends some more time here. Meanwhile, check out the album. She's being compared, in different ways, to Bonnie Raitt, Janis Joplin and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

I just think she's done a great job of rolling a lot of musical influences into her own unique package.

Here's a sample of her work, via YouTube -- the ethereal, haunting "Black Guitar," which appears on this CD.

The HoneyBoy Dog saga

I'm sure you all remember my mentions of HoneyBoy Dog, the official dog of the BlueNotes blog, and how his adoption from the Parchman's Farm of dogdom -- a puppy mill -- resulted in this honor. Well, it turns out that the story of his name, in honor of legendary blues guitarist Honeyboy Edwards, has earn the little guy top dog honors in the next issue of the Petfinder.com newsletter, Pet Tails. Wag on HoneyBoy, wag on.