Marshall Tucker Band vocalists, Doug Gray, recalls the concert more than four decades ago when 1978 rolled into 1979. There were more than 2,000 people in attendance, and more listening on the radio, as the show was simulcast. “That show was something," he said, in a 2020 interview with the Houston Press. "And it sounds really, really good. Everybody was having a good time, and you could tell. I remember a lot because I brought my mother and father down there. And I had been hanging out with Gregg Allman - the best southern rock singer there is."
Or, rather - was.
This release, aside from including all the Marshall Tucker songs you'd ever need to hear, is not in any way doctored or touched up post show via studio trickery. Gray insisted on this and I think it's part of the reason this record almost literally transports me back in time. It sounds so authentic, so real. Just like I'm there. I can hear the bum chords, the missed notes and the occasional feedback screech. Toy Caldwell, who in addition to handling the lead guitar duties wrote pretty much all the songs Marshall Tucker recorded, apologizes for his hoarse voice before singing Can't You See, one of the only Marshall Tucker songs Gray doesn't sing. He says Caldwell actually wrote the song for him to sing, but "I told him I couldn’t do it. First, it was about his wife - so that was out! But he wanted me to sing it hard, and I asked him to show me. He went out there, nailed it, and we recorded it. It’s just better for his voice than it ever was for mine, and it would not have been as big a hit as it was if I did it.” And that's probably true. Caldwell's voice is rougher than Gray's, and here the ragged edges shine.
Gray, now in his mid-70s, still fronts the band and still tours, although not as much as he used to. But it's not the same band anymore and I wonder if most of the people they play for as they make the casino rounds are even aware that Gray is the lone original survivor. Probably not, and at this point it probably doesn't matter. It's more a really talented Marshall Tucker cover band these days, with just two original feet still firmly rooted in the Spartanburg dirt.
The Marshall Tucker Band, although almost always lumped in with the Allman Brothers Band, the Charlie Daniels Band, the Outlaws, 38 Special and Lynyrd Skynyrd, had a more varied, rock and roll sound that allowed them to stand apart from their southern rock brethren. They never reached the same successful heights as their peers, but they had a loyal and dedicated following nonetheless.
This very well recorded double LP will serve as an excellent introduction to the band for those who are only now discovering them, or who never got to see them live (like me). This show was a headlining gig on New Years Eve at the Warehouse, in New Orleans, which was the prime venue for live music in that city throughout the 1970s and into the '80s. The tapes of this show lingered in the vaults for more than 40 years, and yet still sound as fresh and as vigorous as ever. Marshall Tucker performed there regularly, and the crowd that night were clearly ardent admirers.
This is the Marshall Tucker lineup - Toy Caldwell, Jerry Eubanks, Doug Gray, George McCorkle, Paul Riddle and Tommy Caldwell, and the set list included not only their mainstream hits but also a mind-blowing extended take on Will the Circle Be Unbroken. The band is in fine form and their energy and enthusiasm - and that of the audience, too - never lets up. The Marshall Tucker Band was a terrific band, and this was the lineup that mattered. Now here's your chance to hear them knocking it out of the park. This is an excellent recording that belongs in any serious rock collection! Definitely …
Marshall Tucker Band vocalists, Doug Gray, recalls the concert more than four decades ago when 1978 rolled into 1979. There were more than 2,000 people in attendance, and more listening on the radio, as the show was simulcast. “That show was something," he said, in a 2020 interview with the Houston Press. "And it sounds really, really good. Everybody was having a good time, and you could tell. I remember a lot because I brought my mother and father down there. And I had been hanging out with Gregg Allman - the best southern rock singer there is."
Or, rather - was.
This release, aside from including all the Marshall Tucker songs you'd ever need to hear, is not in any way doctored or touched up post show via studio trickery. Gray insisted on this and I think it's part of the reason this record almost literally transports me back in time. It sounds so authentic, so real. Just like I'm there. I can hear the bum chords, the missed notes and the occasional feedback screech. Toy Caldwell, who in addition to handling the lead guitar duties wrote pretty much all the songs Marshall Tucker recorded, apologizes for his hoarse voice before singing Can't You See, one of the only Marshall Tucker songs Gray doesn't sing. He says Caldwell actually wrote the song for him to sing, but "I told him I couldn’t do it. First, it was about his wife - so that was out! But he wanted me to sing it hard, and I asked him to show me. He went out there, nailed it, and we recorded it. It’s just better for his voice than it ever was for mine, and it would not have been as big a hit as it was if I did it.” And that's probably true. Caldwell's voice is rougher than Gray's, and here the ragged edges shine.
Gray, now in his mid-70s, still fronts the band and still tours, although not as much as he used to. But it's not the same band anymore and I wonder if most of the people they play for as they make the casino rounds are even aware that Gray is the lone original survivor. Probably not, and at this point it probably doesn't matter. It's more a really talented Marshall Tucker cover band these days, with just two original feet still firmly rooted in the Spartanburg dirt.
The Marshall Tucker Band, although almost always lumped in with the Allman Brothers Band, the Charlie Daniels Band, the Outlaws, 38 Special and Lynyrd Skynyrd, had a more varied, rock and roll sound that allowed them to stand apart from their southern rock brethren. They never reached the same successful heights as their peers, but they had a loyal and dedicated following nonetheless.
This very well recorded double LP will serve as an excellent introduction to the band for those who are only now discovering them, or who never got to see them live (like me). This show was a headlining gig on New Years Eve at the Warehouse, in New Orleans, which was the prime venue for live music in that city throughout the 1970s and into the '80s. The tapes of this show lingered in the vaults for more than 40 years, and yet still sound as fresh and as vigorous as ever. Marshall Tucker performed there regularly, and the crowd that night were clearly ardent admirers.
This is the Marshall Tucker lineup - Toy Caldwell, Jerry Eubanks, Doug Gray, George McCorkle, Paul Riddle and Tommy Caldwell, and the set list included not only their mainstream hits but also a mind-blowing extended take on Will the Circle Be Unbroken. The band is in fine form and their energy and enthusiasm - and that of the audience, too - never lets up. The Marshall Tucker Band was a terrific band, and this was the lineup that mattered. Now here's your chance to hear them knocking it out of the park. This is an excellent recording that belongs in any serious rock collection! Definitely …
BONUS TRACK
When the Marshall Tucker Band played this show at The Warehouse, in New Orleans, it was the most widely-heard rock concert of its time due to being simulcast to 150 radio stations.
In a review of the band's Madison Square Garden show six weeks earlier, the New York Times' Robert Palmer wrote, "The Marshall Tucker Band does not play conventional southern rock, although by now the group is successful enough to be setting conventions of its own ... So, unlike many southern bands, which tend to get locked into narrow blues grooves, the Marshall Tucker Band soars. Most of the tunes turn into more or less extended jams led by Toy Caldwell, whose lead guitar work builds from short, cleanly articulated phrases into high note barrages with a sure sense of pacing …
"Thursday night's show was crisp and energetic. It was the kind of show the band used to give at the Palladium or in Central Park ... the music worked handsomely, and the crowd was on its feet through most of the show. The Marshall Tucker Band has managed to become a major group without compromising its original stylistic integrity and without resorting to theatrical staging or other tricks of the trade."
This recording was sourced from the original 24 track master tapes and sounds absolutely wonderful.
MORE MARSHALL TUCKER
When the Marshall Tucker Band played this show at The Warehouse, in New Orleans, it was the most widely-heard rock concert of its time due to being simulcast to 150 radio stations.
In a review of the band's Madison Square Garden show six weeks earlier, the New York Times' Robert Palmer wrote, "The Marshall Tucker Band does not play conventional southern rock, although by now the group is successful enough to be setting conventions of its own ... So, unlike many southern bands, which tend to get locked into narrow blues grooves, the Marshall Tucker Band soars. Most of the tunes turn into more or less extended jams led by Toy Caldwell, whose lead guitar work builds from short, cleanly articulated phrases into high note barrages with a sure sense of pacing …
"Thursday night's show was crisp and energetic. It was the kind of show the band used to give at the Palladium or in Central Park ... the music worked handsomely, and the crowd was on its feet through most of the show. The Marshall Tucker Band has managed to become a major group without compromising its original stylistic integrity and without resorting to theatrical staging or other tricks of the trade."
This recording was sourced from the original 24 track master tapes and sounds absolutely wonderful.
MORE MARSHALL TUCKER
