Mar-Tie's story:
Ned Martin Stringham was my grandfather. He was a grandfather in the
cliché way. The kind of man you'd want for your grandpa. As a child he'd
spoil me with presents and dollar bills when my family would visit him
in Utah.
He loved country music and would take my grandmother dancing. Ned
Stringham was the father of six girls. He worked many jobs, but his
favorite was the Recreational Coordinator at the State Hospital in
Provo, Utah. Ned taught me at an early age to refer to the place he
worked as the 'State Hospital' and not the 'Mental Institution.'
Later in life, when I visited Ned at the State Hospital, I went to see
him not as an employee in the Recreation Department but as a patient in
the geriatric ward.
Ned was severely bipolar and when he didn't take his medication he
became maniacally convinced that he was no longer Ned Martin Stringham
(grandpa, husband and father) but Mar-Tie, Country Western Superstar.
While seemingly harmful looking, off of his medication, Mar-Tie was a
danger to himself and to others. This is why he was committed to the
State Hospital.
It was difficult to enjoy the music he created because of the mental and
financial anguish these recordings put on my family. He blew through
lifesaving's hiring bands to back up his songs. He'd leave my
grandmother for long periods of time to record his music. Once he
returned with a new van, convinced he needed to purchase this vehicle so
his band could tour America. A week or two later, the van was
repossessed.
He recorded thousands of songs and had boxes and boxes of cassette tapes
with his music and musings. However, his wife, daughters,
grandchildren, myself didn't recognize or appreciate the oddness of our
wacky relative. Nearly all of his music has been lost. He stored his
cassette tapes at random storage units throughout Utah. Never
remembering to pay his bills, the cassette tapes were probably sold for
pennies at warehouse auctions.
After Mar-Tie died, I collected the few tapes he had in his room and
played them for my friend Penny who had a show on the public radio
station KRCL in Salt Lake City. She played some of Mar-Tie's music over
the air and people (not many, but a few) began requesting other songs by
Mar-Tie. One listener, Blair Sterrett who also had a radio show (on
KWCR/Weber States 88.1 FM in Utah) asked for a copy of Mar-Tie's music.
Blair then sent Mar-Tie to Otis Fodder and that's how, a few years after
Mar-Tie's death, that he became unearthed.
Maybe one day more songs will surface, but for now these are the
complete recordings of my avant garde grandfather, Mar-Tie, Country
Western Superstar. -
Phil Jacobsen
so, this is pretty much a band in a can keyboard stuff with Mar-Tie singing. There's 3 hours of music here.
here's a sample of something
d/l from a tape called The Voice of God. This is side A, track 1 and it is 17 minutes long. She says that the pearl ring has a flaw in it, in it. what are we gonna do about it?
This is interesting stuff for those that are sort of fascinated with mental illness and music.
here's the whole
shebang.
sorry no .zip
"The indians are thinkin' about it with their flutes, with bells on." -Mar-Tie
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