Rick Marshall Salutes the Heroes In New Single “Classic Country (Rocks My World)”
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.
Hi Rick! Good to see you again and what have you been up to since we last talked?
Hi there, nice to see you too, I hope you had a great summer!
I’ve been quite busy since last we talked. I wrote a couple of new songs over the summer, made my way back to the land of my birth, Newfoundland, and in late August I was back in Nashville with Producer Dean Miller. Dean assembled the same amazing studio musicians and it was like seeing old friends, so to say we had a fine time in the studio would be an understatement. This trip marked the completion of what is to be my Debut LP “Legend of the West” and I am looking forward to sharing these new tracks with you and the world.
Rick, you name-check 33 legendary country artists in ‘Classic Country (Rocks My World).’ How did you decide which icons to include, and were there any that almost made the cut but didn’t?
That is a great question! Living in Newfoundland as a kid in the 70’s there was a lot of country on the few radio stations that were there. Although I also liked rock-n-roll and other types of music, I believe this is where my affinity for country music started. In those days you would regularly hear the likes of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Roy Clark, George Jones, and Loretta Lynn, I could go on and on as I do in my song, lol.
I was getting to know those artists and their music and on occasions, I would hear a new artist or new to me, I should say, and I would try to hear more from them and they would lead to someone else, taking me down the Classic Country Music rabbit hole, so to speak. When I was down in Illinois those artists were a lot more accessible to me and I became a big fan.
What other Artists would I like to have included? Well, that my friend is a list too long to state here, but I will tell you some of the Legends that were in contention right up to the end and that would be Ronnie Milsap, Charlie Rich, Bobby Bare, Tom T. Hall, but the list goes on.
Can you tell us more about how driving the bin truck in Ontario influenced the songwriting process for this track? Did the isolation on the road inspire more of your creative work?
Well, sure, I have been writing songs since I was a young man. My early songs were all written A cappella, eventually, I taught myself to play guitar to improve my songwriting skills and to be able to add music to my original songs.
As a matter of fact, a song I just recorded in Nashville a few weeks ago, “Gone”, was written that way. So I was quite adept at writing songs in that fashion and adding the music later.
I had been milling about in my head the idea of writing a song that could pay tribute to the legends who inspired me, but I really had no clue how to bring this idea to life.
When I wrote this song, as you know, I was driving this big truck through rural Ontario. So, I would regularly pass Mennonites and their horse-drawn carriages, school yards filled with all manner of their parked carriages, farms full of sheep and goats as well as horses and cows, and the most beautiful countryside. So with not much reception on the radio, that solitude inspired me. The first line “I don’t put much stock in best-laid plans” from my song “Classic Country (Rocks My World)” I believe came to me from the book/play/movie Stienbeck’s, “Of Mice and Men”.
The actual quote is “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry”.
Another classic line from that Novel was “tell me about the farm, George” so knowing the story and seeing the farms, my mind subconsciously put it all together and I found myself singing “I don’t put much stock in best-laid plans, I like living my life by the seat of my pants”, my minds interpretation of Steinbeck’s line.
Then, came the line “with my hair on fire I’m out in the night, kicking my heels till the morning light” I would repeat those lines over and over until the next line formed
“And the music plays all night long, all of my favorites in one long song”, once I had that line I knew where this song was going. I had unwittingly started my song paying tribute to my country legends, inspired by the real country I was seeing every day.
By the time I was finished at this job site my song was finished as well. I needed then, only to add the music.
I’m sure the solitude of driving has inspired some of my other songs, but none to this extent. I actually documented the writing of this song with my phone. I had the video recording so I could remember the melody and the words I would come up with each day. In the video you hear me trying to come up with the lines and you see my legs and work boots as I shift through the gears. Look for that footage in the near future on my Social Media Platforms, it’s actually quite humorous.
You’ve spoken about your love for classic country music. What is it about the sound, spirit, or storytelling of the genre that resonates so deeply with you?
I have always had a draw to the West and Mexico, whether from my paternal grandfather who hailed from California or some other life, but it has always called to me.
In my song, “Viva Mexico”, that becomes quite apparent. It is the music and the storytelling that really resonates with me and I consider myself a storyteller as you can see from my song “Legend of the West”, as well as my upcoming releases.
Johnny Cash was clearly a major influence on your music. How did meeting him and attending his 1994 Chicago show impact your decision to pursue country music as a career?
Johnny Cash was a hero of mine. I was lucky enough to meet him and shake his hand at the Bismarck Hotel in Chicago back in 1994. It was a perfectly sized room for an intimate show and I had the best seats in the house. In typical fashion, my friends and I had missed the opening act, The Jayhawks, and entered the capacity-filled room just before Johnny was about to go on. In what I believe to be just one of Johnny Cash and his family hallmarks, we were met with generosity and open arms. They escorted us to the front of the stage and let us sit on the carpeted floor in front of the front row.
That for me was as up close and personal as I could have ever hoped for: a ringside seat to the greatest show on earth. That meeting would take me on a ride I didn’t see coming. One that has brought me here to you today.
Thank you for having me once again, I appreciate your time and look for “Classic Country (Rocks my World) Out Now!