Thursday, June 20, 2024

Music Minute - Rick Marshall: Viva México

 “Viva México” YouTube and Spotify

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Rick Marshall may have grown up in Kelligrews, Newfoundland, but he has salsa coursing through his blood. That’s evident after a single listen to “Viva México,” one of four musical calling cards the singer-songwriter is dropping to introduce himself to the world as an original country artist—and, not incidentally, as a happy convert to the way life gets lived south of the border.

 

“Viva México” is merely the first hint of the country magic they whipped up at Sound Emporium Studios, supported ably by an all-star cast of session players who are known for backing up some of the giants of the genre. Marshall’s own “Classic Country (Rocks My World)” namechecks 33 such titans, from Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson to Kris Kristofferson, George Jones and Tammy Wynette. Chuckling a bit at his own contribution to mythology, Marshall says the song was written behind the wheel of his truck. Seriously, how much more country can a guy get?

 

“Legend of the West” represents a real meeting of cultures, built on stories passed down by Marshall’s Californian grandfather and honed as a song while sitting under a starlit Mexican night with his brother-in-law. “I had my guitar, and we were sipping on some tequila,” he recalls. (See?) The lyric is a first-person farewell from an aging outlaw who’s reaching the end of a life that’s been spent “living by the gun” and “trading bullets for gold.”

 

Meanwhile, the melancholy and reflective “Grass Is Always Greener” is the proverbial One That Got Away song, in which our narrator laments a true love he sacrificed in pursuit of a fake one. “When you don’t know what you got,” he sums up gravely, “you let it go.”


 

“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.”

 

As for Miller’s contributions from behind the desk, Marshall can’t sing the man’s praises highly enough.

 

“Watching him in action was like taking a master class in production,” he 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.”

 

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