Marshall & The Fro
All over Australia the name ‘Marshall and the Fro’ has become synonymous with good feelings, late nights, and frothing festival tents. Favouring stomp over swamp, country over western, and rhythm over blues, Marshall and The Fro is a winning combination of birthright talent, seasoned musicianship and the result of good old-fashioned hard work.
Musically the band is painted in the earthy licks and bottle-neck slide of universal influences Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, add to this Bon Scott’s hard-working sense of charisma, Angus Young’s stage enthusiasm and the steam-train backing of an incredibly well-oiled rhythm section and you should get the general idea of what to expect of Marshall & the Fro.
But what is more intriguing than the band’s odd bend of psych tinged blues and country rock is the ballad of front man Marshall Okell, certainly among the hardest working artists of authenticity the country has produced in recent times.
From first plying his talents for performance at age 11, thus far; Marshall has lived life full throttle riding the highs and overcoming the adverse lows all told via the stories in his music and motion. A character larger than life, bolder than most, Marshall could have been born with a blue collar as everything about his story oozes legitimacy.
Catch him at any ‘local’ in the country and its plain to see; he’s the working man’s champion named after the world’s most infamous guitarist (Jimi ‘Marshall’ Hendrix) carrying on the family trade. Yes, Marshall was always destined to entertain and having carved a career out of rousing any room you could book him in. For over a decade Marshall and his band have been clear festival favourites, playing many the likes and levels of Woodford Folk Festival, Bridgetown Blues and have become a staple of Byron Bluesfest in addition to headlining many of the Boutique ones across the nation. Despite the sheer volume of appearances and lofty heights reached, Marshall and the Fro can still light the room on fire in a club setting like a crew of young guns with something to prove. This all lies beneath paralleled years of airwaves, awards, interviews and exposure.
Looking into the future, Marshall & the Fro offer the nearest thing you can find to a guaranteed thing against a growing culture of ‘here today, gone tomorrow’. Having done his time climbing ranks, Marshall and his band mates truly live within the music they make, happily riding the highways and feeding the punters with no foreseeable reason to stop.
Marshall & The Fro have new music available on all platforms, their 2nd single ‘Breadcrumbs’ from their forthcoming album titled ‘Hillbilly Disco’ is due out 2025.
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https://open.spotify.com/artist/3NajZLFo5WmSPPtcOmN0KF?si=6f-30hUVR7KAQsBXAChlKA