Toni Marshall - The First Second Time Around

Unless you live within the limits of the far north side of Indianapolis, there’s a terribly high probability you’ve never encountered the music of Toni Marshall.

That’s no great surprise, but it is a damn shame – especially if you’re the sort who appreciates gorgeous folk songs.

Toni is a staggeringly prolific songwriter and musician who has continued creating, pushing, advancing despite whatever odds each day brings, and it has been etched right into the recorded output for about a decade and a half.

Intelligent, earnest, deftly-played acoustic folk not in fashion? So be it. It was perfect and timeless in the hands of Dylan and Young, and it still works wonders when done right these days. See: The Tallest Man on Earth, Gillian Welch, Dave Rawlings, Jeff Tweedy, Ryley Walker, Ryan Adams, et cetera.

Toni’s songs have beguiling power and bring many of these people to mind whenever I hear them or see them played live, and Marshall’s brand new album, The First Second Time Around (listen/buy on Bandcamp or Spotify), is the best evidence of this. And I don’t say this merely put through any sort of local-Indiana-artist filter; I say this as a lover of folk songs and live music and as a rabid fan of every artist I cited above.

So what if the music is born from a little, rural town twenty or so miles from a small-market Midwestern city? Toni knows the odds, and still quietly writes and records a legitimate treasure trove of original songs and uploads them into the world and hopes for them to find their way to passionate ears. It’s what a genuine artist does, and I can’t think of someone I cross paths with more frequently who deserves that title more than Toni Marshall.

I’d seen Toni play a dozen or so times (typically at our respective favorite local brewery) over the past handful of years prior to the release of the previous full-length album, Phantasmatabulous. Toni’s vocal delivery was always intimate and captivating, the playing more rhythmic, adventurous and refined than even most good acoustic guitarists. The combination creates an atmosphere that is special and palpable in a live setting, even when performed solo in a typically chatty bar around midnight on a Saturday. Yet, what always keeps me enchanted through the din is the indelible magnitude of the song: Toni’s ability to craft rich, yearning lyrics, marry them with a memorable chorus that’s usually half sweet, half anguished and consistently pretty (think Elliott Smith, Aimee Mann) and anchor them to original, dexterous guitar work that soars and swells.

I bought Phantasmatabulous the night of the release party, and I was thrilled to discover soon after that Toni’s self-released recordings do justice to the songs and could stand up against other more widely known artists when I switched the albums back and forth on my stereo. I meant to write something about Toni back then, but something came up or I was on some writing hiatus or felt overwhelmed by previous commitments. In any case, I didn’t and have wanted to ever since.

Weeks later when I saw Toni, I said how much I liked the record. In response, Toni handed me a zip drive containing what I was told was a recorded discography to date. I expected two or three albums, maybe an additional EP or two. And then I put the zip drive in my computer. What I discovered were more than a dozen full-length albums spanning more than a decade and five or so EPs, many under differing names, all self-released, intriguing and wildly versatile with increasing production proficiency from one release to the next. Some fifteen-minute ambient instrumental recordings, some lo-fi bedroom folk-pop, a dose of solid, intellectually-minded politically-charged rap, and a wealth of excellent folk instrumentals and original songs. It reminded me of getting into Bright Eyes around the release of Lifted... and then discovering all the albums and songs a virtuosic teen named Conor had been putting out for about a decade prior. It’s how I imagine any person who becomes a Daniel Johnston fan feels the moment they really get into his music. Or, more recently, it’s probably sort of like trying to dig through all the older Bandcamp releases of a Pitchfork-certified “Best New Music” artist like Car Seat Headrest or Sandy (Alex G) when you thought you were on to a new artist who miraculously got good overnight. I was even more overwhelmed about the prospect of writing about Toni than before, but it would take some time to absorb it all and know when to. I knew I need to, though, because nobody else was writing about Toni as far as I could tell, especially nobody even semi-tangential to the wider music community.

All of that goes a long way to explaining why I’m covering Toni Marshall and why I’m writing this now, three years later: Toni’s The First Second Time Around is, simply put, the best folk album I’ve heard in 2017 and one of the finest collection of acoustic songs I’ve heard in years. There’s no qualifier for “as a local artist.” The record is an earnest work of art that is as good in the genre as any other I’ve heard. Toni may live only a couple miles from me and regularly perform at my favorite brewery, but that doesn’t devalue the depth and artistry of the music. Upon announcing the release of The First Second Time Around, Toni said, “I feel like I’ve made my Blood on the Tracks.” Such a confident and bold statement made me even hungrier than before to hear new music from Toni, and damn it, Toni just may be spot on. The album has only been out for a little over a week now, but I’m several listens into these songs and they keep me coming back, in more than a little awe with each fresh visit. It is Toni Marshall’s most outstanding release to date, and this is the perfect time for you to dive in and listen up if you haven’t already.

The Fist Second Time Around is out now. Visit Toni Marshall's Bandcamp page for more releases.