I’m not really a believer in fate. I just feel like people can make rational choices that end up steering them down a new path. Having said that, I’ve certainly seen examples where the Universe just keeps knocking someone back on track. The musician Odd Marshall seems to be one of those. An obsession with the band Blind Melon led him to create his first band in high school and start writing songs. But film school beckoned and he veered into the visual arts. While struggling to make a living as a director, he started gigging again. Faced with his own perceived mediocrity there, he retreated back to film & television. Along the way he wrote a novel that garnered some attention so off he went to focus on writing. Fate intervened again in the form of a winter car accident, sending him back down the musical journey whereupon, after a series of twists and turns, he found himself recording his second album with the help of none other than Blind Melon guitarists Christopher Thorn and Rogers Stevens. That record, Seconds, came out last month.
As befitting a project with 3 guitarists, the CD doesn’t stray far from its rock and roll core. The opener, Run, blasts you with a heavy sound originally inspired by the murder of a restaurant owner. It quickly expands into a general disillusionment with today’s society where “we were raised on lies.” So “you better run, run for your life.” Way Out is, in some ways, an extension of that. Drums and guitar drive the rocker espousing the idea “there’s a way out if you want it,” but at that point you have to determine what’s next. Wreck Your Life (For Rock ‘n’ Roll) has an aesthetic not unlike some of Michael Stipes’ nonsensical verses, but it’s full of lyrical verse-dropping that will put a smile on your face.
A little mellower in its pace and intensity is On My Way. Marshall’s vocals convey a touch of sadness about a relationship doomed because of his actions, but questioning whether she’s found someone else. While that’s about a past lover, Hold Me Together is more in the present tense. It’s clear, though, the outcome will be the same. Take Me Anywhere has a David Lynch vibe in a psychedelic Dixie Chicken tale where “we found a house at the end of the lane.”
Odd Marshall is an artistic polyglot, having recorded albums, written novels and screenplays, and directed films and television commercials. Out of all that he’s learned that life is full of second chances, whether it’s to reconnect with audiences that maybe didn’t get your music the first time around or reset your view on the small town you grew up in. That positioned him to gratefully grasp the opportunity to record with a couple of his childhood heroes, and Seconds is a rock and roll album that fully embraces Marshall’s destiny.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.