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Gospel album released

PARKERSBURG – Parkersburg native Nathan Marshall recently released an album “What Ships Are For,” which can be purchased on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, CD Baby, Facebook and Bandcamp.

The album is No. 1 in the Country Gospel genre on Amazon.com.

From the musician who won the 2012 48 Hour Music Video Project award for Best Music Video and the Audience Choice Award for best song comes indie folk rock singer/songwriter Marshall’s first ever EP album titled “What Ships Are For.”

Released worldwide on July 22, “What Ships Are For” takes listeners into the eccentric and inventive mind of a man who found his soul in the mountains of Tibet, found his humor on the stand-up comedy stages of New York City, found confidence from his time on movie and television sets, found wisdom from his years as a public educator, found humility from his belief in God, and found his music in the world surrounding us all, according to a press release.

“What Ships Are For is an interesting project for me,” Marshall said. “I am really stepping out of my comfort zone and sharing a part of my soul through something I am very vulnerable in, music,” he said.

“As an individual, I want to keep pushing myself to create. However, with this desire to create, one has to go into each new venture realizing that I’m not going to be perfect, but, hey, I am going to try stuff.”

Marshall teamed up on the EP with R.J. and Karen Dietrich, also known as the band Essential Machine. The duo that helped Marshall produce his first award-winning song “When I’m Fifty,” which has been remastered and, for the first time ever, released on an official album.

Also added to the record is music legend Jim Avett, the father of indie folk rock stars The Avett Brothers. Avett, a friend of Marshall’s, helped to write, play and sing on the album’s single “Words from My Father,” a song that Marshall’s father, Harold Marshall Jr., helped write.

“I enjoyed working with Nathan trying to find the right lyrics/chords on this tune to say exactly what needed to be said,” said Avett on the experience.

“Jim is truly one of the great people in this business to learn from,” said Marshall. “He has a pedigree for writing amazing lyrics, and it really was an honor to work with such a great musician and an even better man on my first ever EP.”

Marshall’s music can be heard at nathanmarshall.bandcamp.com/.

Marshall has been teaching at Brooke High School in Wellsburg, W.Va.

He attended the former Park School in Parkersburg until the fifth grade. He still has family members living on Red Hill Road and considers Parkersburg to be his home. Marshall’s grandmother and grandfather Dorothy and Paul Sams were lifelong residents of Parkersburg and his grandparents Harold and Ila Marshall also lived in Parkersburg.

His parents Harold Marshall Jr. and Linda Marshall lived in Parkersburg for a long time before moving to Wellsburg.

“There is nothing better than coming down to my family farm, taking in the true beauty of West Virginia, and realizing what is really important in life – God and family,” Marshall said after a recent visit to Wood County.

Last year, Marshall’s folk-style indie rock song “When I’m Fifty” was part of a music video that represented the Pittsburgh area in the 48 Hour Music Video Project’s Filmapalooza at Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Marshall said his song depicts the melodic wonderings of a young man and his hopes for himself as he gets older.

Marshall graduated from Brooke High School in 2000, Bethany College in 2004 with a degree in theater and from West Virginia University with a master’s in English education in 2007.

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