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SUMMARY:The Marshall Tucker Band
DESCRIPTION:When you wake up and want to put a smile on your face, you think of thesongs that always manage to reach down and touch your soul the momentyou hear the first note. The Marshall Tucker Band is one such group thatcontinues to have a profound level of impact on successive generations oflisteners who’ve been "Searchin’ for a Rainbow" and found it perfectlyrepresented by this tried-and-true Southern institution over the decades.“I’ve been in tune with how music can make you feel, right from when I wasfirst in the crib,” explains lead vocalist and bandleader Doug Gray, who’sbeen fronting the MTB since the very beginning. “I was born with that. And Irealized it early on, back when I was a little kid and my mom and dadencouraged me to get up there and sing whatever song came on thejukebox. It got to the point where people were listening to me more thanwhat was on the jukebox! There’s a certain gift I found I could share,whether I was in front of five people or 20,000 people. I was blessed withthat ability and I’m thankful I can share with others."The Marshall Tucker Band came together as a young, hungry, and quitedriven six-piece outfit in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1972, having dulybaptized themselves with the name of a blind piano tuner after they found itinscribed on a key to their original rehearsal space — and they’ve been intune with tearing it up on live stages both big and small all across the globeever since. Plus, the band’s mighty music catalog, consisting of more than20 studio albums and a score of live releases, has racked up multi-platinumalbum sales many times over. A typically rich MTB setlist is bubbling overwith a healthy dose of hits like the heartfelt singalong “Heard It in a LoveSong,” the insistent pleading of “Can’t You See” (the signature tune ofMTB’s late co-founding lead guitarist and then-principal songwriter ToyCaldwell), the testifying “Fire on the Mountain,” the wanderlust gallop of“Long Hard Ride,” and the explosive testimony of “Ramblin,’” to name but afew.Indeed, the secret ingredient to the ongoing success of The MarshallTucker Band’s influence can be seen and felt far and wide throughout manymainstream digital outlets (Netflix, Amazon, etc.). In essence, it’s thisinimitable down-home sonic style that helped make the MTB the first trulyprogressive Southern band to grace this nation’s airwaves — the proof ofwhich can be found within the grooves and ever-shifting gears of “Take theHighway,” the first song on their self-titled April 1973 debut album onCapricorn Records, The Marshall Tucker Band. “We had the commonalityof having all grown up together in Spartanburg,” explains Gray about hisoriginal MTB bandmates, guitar wizard Toy Caldwell and his brother,bassist Tommy Caldwell, alongside rhythm guitarist George McCorkle,drummer Paul T. Riddle, and flautist/saxophonist Jerry Eubanks. “Theframework for Marshall Tucker’s music is more like a spaceship than ahouse,” Gray continues, “because you can look out of a lot of windows andsee a variety of things that show where we’ve been and what we’ve done,and how we’ve travelled through time to bring those experiences out in allof our songs.”The Marshall Tucker Band’s influence can be felt far and wide throughmany respected contemporaries and the artists who’ve followed the pathforged by their collective footsteps and footstomps. “MTB helped originateand personify what was to become known as Southern rock, and I wasprivileged to watch it all come together in the ’70s, night after night,” saidthe legendary late Charlie Daniels. “In fact, The Charlie Daniels Band hasplayed more dates with The Marshall Tucker Band over the past years thanany other band we’ve ever worked with. Even after all these years — afterthe tragedies, the miles, the personnel changes, and the manydevelopments in the music business.” Daniels added that he never got tiredof seeing his MTB brothers on the road: “Whenever Doug Gray walks intomy dressing room with that big ol’ smile of his and then we hug each otherand sit and talk for a while, the evening is complete.”“I remember seeing Marshall Tucker and The Outlaws play together inJacksonville many years ago, when I was just a kid,” recalls LynyrdSkynyrd lead singer Johnny Van Zant. “And I heard them all over the radioback then too. They were just so cool and so unique that I fell in love withthe band, and I also fell in love with the music. Having them open for us onall those dates was like a dream come true, and they’re still as good as I’veever seen them. It brought back a lot of memories for me, because I reallylooked up to those guys when I was first starting out.”Ed Roland, the lead vocalist and chief songwriter for Collective Soul, adds“The Marshall Tucker Band had a big influence on me and they still do.”Roland, who’s lived the majority of his life in and around Atlanta, alsoproudly points out that his band’s biggest hit, “Shine,” owes a clear debt tothe musical structure of “Can’t You See,” and he’ll often start off by singingthe opening line to that song — “I’m gonna take a freight train” — wheneverCollective Soul performs “Shine” live. “We don’t want to stray from what wegrew up listening to,” Roland continues. “I think that’s something importantfor people to hear. It’s just who we are, and I don’t think we should run fromit. Hopefully, people see that southern connection to the bands we love likeMarshall Tucker in our music.”Doug Gray sees no end to the road that lies ahead for The Marshall TuckerBand, whose legacy is being carried forward by the man himself and hiscurrent bandmates, drummer B.B. Borden (Mother’s Finest, The Outlaws),bassist/vocalist Ryan Ware, keyboardist/saxophonist/flautist/vocalistMarcus James Henderson, guitarist/vocalist Chris Hicks, and guitarist/vocalist Rick Willis. “You know, I think it was Toy Caldwell’s dad who said,‘There’s more to gray hair than old bones,’ and we still have a lot of storiesyet to tell,” Gray concludes. “People ask me all the time what I’m gonna dowhen I turn 80, and I always say, ‘The same thing that we’re continuing todo now.’ We’re road warriors, there’s no doubt about that — and I don’tintend to slow down.” May the MTB wagon train continue running like thewind on a long hard ride for many more years to come. One thing weabsolutely know for sure: If you heard it in a Marshall Tucker Band song, itcertainly can’t be wrong.—Mike Mettler, this ol’ MTB chronologist
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