Start Your Weekend Right Rockin' With the Marshall Tucker Band

The original line-up of the band also carried the songs in this list. That lineup consisted of songwriter, vocalist, and lead guitar player Toy Caldwell, lead vocalist Doug Gray, keyboard and saxophone player Jerry Eubanks, as well as George McCorkle on rhythm guitar, Tommy Caldwell on bass guitar, and Paul Riddle on drums. They got their big break when Wet Willie lead singer Jimmy Hall encouraged them to book some time at Grant’s Lounge in Macon, Georgia. The night they played, two guys named Buddy Thornton and Paul Hornsby were there, and they went on to help the band cut a demo tape. This led to a contract with Capricorn Records, and they were launched.

It’s unclear where they came up with the name. There has never been a Marshall Tucker associated with the band. There’s a rumor that the band chose the name that appeared on a key chain for the building where they rehearsed, but who knows? But boy, howdy, do old rockers ever remember that name now.

Here are some of my favorites.

Can’t You See (1973): This isn’t really a cheerful song, and it never really shot up the charts, although now it’s one of the songs that The Marshall Tucker Band is best remembered for. The lyrics aren’t really what you’d call uplifting.

I'm gonna find me a hole in the wall
Gonna crawl inside and die

Still, a great tune.

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Hillbilly Band (1973): This one’s a little more fun. While I grew up in northeast Iowa and not the old South, a lot of the lyrics, as well as the sound, still hit home.

I gotta get home before the sun goes down
 I gotta go listen to my favorite sound
 It's a hillbilly fiddle and an ol' guitar
Cousin Stanley on a corn liquor jar

Take The Highway (1973): This one leans hard into the country side of country rock, with an almost doleful sound, and lyrics to match:

Take the highway
 Lord knows I've been gone too long
 Lot of sad days
 One day you'll turn around and I'll be gone
 And the time has finally come
 For me to pack my bags and walk away
Hear me say

In My Own Way (1973): Another love song, and as we all know, if you heard it in a love song, can’t be wrong. This one also has a lot to do with acceptance: How someone can love another person without changing, and without wanting the other person to change, that we can love someone in our own way.

And in my own way I love you
 In my own way I need you
 In my own way I've got to have your love
And in my own way I've got to have your love

Ramblin’ (1973): Now we’re talking country rock. Few know the rambling life like musicians, and a little wandering is great to take one’s mind off one’s problems, even if that problem is loss and loneliness. That’s what this one’s all about. Fire On The Mountain (1975): This one was written by George McCorkle, who knew that Charlie Daniels was working on an album by that name and hoped that Charlie would record it. Charlie Daniels liked the song and even joined the band to play fiddle on the initial recordings, but he didn’t take it for his album. George McCorkle later said of the tune:

It wasn't really a thought-out song. Me and my brother came up with the intro to it. The two of us were just playin' acoustics and that little hook line just came up from me and him sitting around playing.

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Heard It In A Love Song (1977): This one, from the late 1970s as the band’s style was maturing some, is another great, upbeat tune. Written by Toy Caldwell, it carries that great message; if you heard it in a love song, can’t be wrong. Lead singer Doug Gray later said that Toy Caldwell was:

…a master songwriter and player. Toy would come to me and say, 'Write this down real quick: I ain't never been with a woman long enough for my boots to get old,' I would never think that way.

The Marshall Tucker Band is still touring and still doing a lot of the great old songs, even though only Doug Gray is left of the original lineup.

I'm betting some of you readers have some great stories or experiences about The Marshall Tucker Band. Let’s hear ‘em! As ever, the comments are all yours.