“Classic Country (Rock My World)” YouTube and Spotify
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:
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.”
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.
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