No offense to contemporary country, but to the true, dyed-in-the-wool connoisseur, nothing beats the original formula. And Rick Marshall is nothing if not a connoisseur, as he proves on his heartfelt—and, not incidentally, utterly butt-kicking—tribute track, “Classic Country (Rocks My World).”
In a tight three minutes and 12 seconds, Marshall namechecks 33 of the music’s immortal giants, from Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson to Kris Kristofferson, George Jones, and Tammy Wynette. Against the backdrop of an appropriately thwacking snare drum and a swooping slide guitar, he makes it clear that when you’re riding with him, you’re riding with the masters:
When I’m on the road driving through your town
I got my windows open and the music loud
I’m paying my respects to all the greats
All their music and the hell they raised!
And if you want to know just how deeply the spirit of classic country runs in his blood, Marshall says he wrote the song from behind the wheel of a truck. For real.
“Back when I was working construction in Ontario, Canada, one of my jobs was driving a bin truck to various sites,” he explains. “With not much on the radio, I would be left to my own devices.”
Having a lot of time to himself plus no distractions meant that when a tune started to come to him, he could hone it one phrase at a time until it was just right.
“I would sing the lines to myself over and over, waiting for the next one to arrive. By the end of a week’s driving, I had pretty much finished the song.”
Marshall’s obsession with salt-of-the-earth roots music had been gestating for far longer than a week. Growing up in Kelligrews, Newfoundland, he would listen in rapt attention at kitchen parties while relatives and their friends played guitars and fiddles and sang the traditional songs. The turning point in his evolution from a devoted listener to a performer in his own right came when he attended a 1994 gig by the great Johnny Cash at The Bismarck Hotel in Chicago.
“The songs, the stories, the persona, the whole vibe hit me: ‘This is what I want to do,’” he remembers. “Johnny Cash was a hero of mine. I was lucky enough to meet him and shake his hand at that show.”
From that point onward, Marshall spent years fronting the band Covered in Cash, performing the songbook of the Man in Black to enthusiastic capacity crowds because they always put on quite a show. But when he wasn’t on stage, he was busy amassing his own repertoire of original tunes. Eventually, he received a phone call from producer Dean Miller (son of the legendary Roger Miller) inviting him to Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios to lay some of them down. Suffice it to say that by that point, there was plenty of material for the two of them to choose from.
For Marshall, the deal was only sweetened by the prospect of working with an all-star cast of backing musicians whose collective résumé has included session work with some of the titans of the genre. Plus, there was the prospect of simply witnessing Miller doing his thing behind the board, which to hear him tell it was almost reward enough in itself:
“Watching him in action was like taking a master class in production,” Marshall says. “My songs are my life story, and Dean got it so it shows in these tracks. I am thrilled and honored to be able to release them to share with my friends and future fans.”
Throughout 2024, Marshall has been successively showcasing a quartet of tracks from those sessions, to introduce himself to the world as a country megastar in the making. In addition to the aforementioned “Classic Country,” there’s been “Viva México,” with Mariachi-esque horn blasts helping to tell the story of Marshall’s odyssey from his formative years in Kelligrews, Newfoundland, to his current happy life as a resident of Nuevo Vallarta. (He moved there in pursuit of an enchanting young lady who ultimately became his wife and the mother of his child.) Another-cross cultural gem, “Legend of the West,” builds on stories Marshall heard from his Californian grandfather, as brought to musical life via a nighttime bout of singing and drinking with his Mexican brother-in-law; the song conveys the final thoughts of an outlaw who’s approaching the end of his time “living by the gun” and “trading bullets for gold.” And then there’s “Grass Is Always Greener,” on which a pensive and rueful narrator laments the real love he lost in chasing a lesser one: “When you don’t know what you got, you let it go.”
All four songs put Marshall squarely in the spotlight as a talent to watch—and one with great taste in collaborators to boot. The core band on the recordings is made up of keyboardist Billy Nobel and drummer Shawn Fichter (both of whom gig on the reg with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill), plus bassist Sam Hunter (Willie Nelson, George Strait, Ronnie Milsap, Glen Campbell, Elton John, Amy Grant, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, et al) and electric guitarist Troy Lancaster (who’s been nominated for The Academy of Country Music’s Guitarist of the Year award).
Also appearing on various tracks are Tim Galloway (the ACM’s 2023 Acoustic Guitar Player of the Year), steel guitarist Steve Hinson (who’s played for Trace Adkins, Dolly Parton and Randy Travis) and acoustic guitarist Pat McGrath (a 25-year Nashville mainstay and a veteran of more than 100 releases by top bluegrass, folk, country and rock artists). Backing vocalist Tania Hancheroff, for her part has a history of recording work with the likes of McGraw and Hill, Sheryl Crow, Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood and Alan Jackson.
“It was almost surreal,” Marshall says. “The opportunity to meet all of these famed studio musicians, who were all so very kind and talented— as well as having a chance to chat and trade stories with them—made the dream come alive.”
Then again, he was receiving omens it was all going to go very right from Day One, when he first set foot in the studio and saw a sign bearing a quotation from The Sound Emporium’s founder, Cowboy Jack Clement:
Remember, we are in the fun business.
If we are not having fun, we are not doing our job.
That sentiment not only guided the sessions but put Marshall’s mind at ease that his career as an original artist was on the right track. Because you’d be hard-pressed to name a classic country act that didn’t qualify as fun. Why, yes: As a matter of fact, we are sure Hank done it that way.
Coming up, Rick’s next recordings, crafted in the heart of Nashville with renowned producer Dean Miller, capture the magic of collaboration with some of the same finest studio musicians. These four new tracks are the culmination of a creative journey that began last fall, and he’s thrilled to soon to share them with everyone.
