The Marcus King Band - Soul Insight

Size: 128.9 MB
Time: 56:09
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2015
Styles: Blues Rock
Art: Front

1. Always [4:11]
2. Boone [5:29]
3. Fraudulent Waffle [5:20]
4. Honey [4:18]
5. Dave's Apparition [2:17]
6. Everything [4:47]
7. No Decency [4:42]
8. Dyin' [5:49]
9. Booty Stank [4:24]
10. Opie [5:09]
11. Keep Moving [5:00]
12. I Won't Be Here [4:37]

There's this young guitar player singer from South Carolina named Marcus King, who is starting to stir up quite a bit of dust, and I think the potential for his music is endless..." - Warren Haynes (Gov't Mule, The Allman Brothers, The Dead) to Rolling Stone Magazine, July 2015.

Call him the next Duane Allman or Derek Trucks, but whatever you do, don't call Marcus King a child prodigy. Sure, the 19 year old guitar shredder's talent shimmers with the same resonance as his heroes, but he's been wielding an axe since he learned to talk - he started playing when he was two, and got his first guitar (a Squier Strat) at age seven, landing his first paying gig a year later.

Now virtual road-warriors, Marcus and the band have toured throughout the south and southeast, developing a fervent fan base and honing their craft, their sound and spirit drawing significant influence from Allman and Haynes to Marvin Gay, Ray LaMontagne, Gary Clark Jr. and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

The band's Evil Teen debut SOUL INSIGHT is comprised of12 original tunes including three instrumentals, showcasing a literal lifetime of virtuosity and love for soul, blues, Southern rock and a great jam.

Soul Insight

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The Marcus King Band - The Marcus King Band

Size: 134,7 MB
Time: 58:02
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2016
Styles: Blues Rock
Art: Front

01. Ain’t Nothin’ Wrong With That (3:47)
02. Devil’s Land (5:08)
03. Rita Is Gone (4:23)
04. Self-Hatred (Feat. Derek Trucks) (5:32)
05. Jealous Man (4:34)
06. The Man You Didn’t Know (4:39)
07. Plant Your Corn Early (5:05)
08. Radio Soldier (4:51)
09. Guitar In My Hands (2:51)
10. Thespian Espionage (5:31)
11. Virginia (Feat. Warren Hayes) (6:31)
12. Sorry 'bout Your Lover (3:23)
13. The Mystery Of Mr. Eads (1:41)

The Marcus King Band is a six-headed musical monster led by Mr. Marcus King, a young guitarist and singer-songwriter from Greenville, South Carolina. King also happens to be a protégé of another son of the South, the ubiquitous Warren Haynes. An early MKB supporter, Haynes has now produced the band’s eponymous second album, due out October 7th.

Haynes has praised King with some of the highest accolades an up-and-comer could want to hear. “Marcus is the first player I’ve heard since Derek Trucks to play with the maturity of a musician well beyond his age,” Haynes has said. “He’s very much influenced by the blues, but also by jazz, rock, soul music and any timeless genre. You can hear the influences, but it all comes through him in his own unique way. And he has one of those voices that instantly draws you in.”

King and his band most definitely drew in the audience during their electric two-hour set at Rockwood Music Hall. With King out front on vocals and guitar, the rest of the septet is Jack Ryan on drums, Stephen Campbell on bass, Matt Jennings on Hammond B3 organ, Dean Mitchell on tenor and baritone saxophones and Justin Johnson on trumpet, trombone, percussion and backing and occasional lead vocals. As challenging as it would have been for a lesser ensemble to pull off, this talented crew easily – nay, joyfully – covered the enormous territory of their leader’s musical tastes.

In person, the similarities between King and Haynes are impossible to overlook. The two could be “fam,” to borrow King’s phrase. They’re both big-boned, with long, shaggy hair that falls mid-back. Next is their singing – rich, bluesy, from-the-gut voices. And both men’s musical tastes are as broad as Haynes described: anchored in the blues but venturing everywhere music can go.

And that’s precisely where the Marcus King Band’s Rockwood set ventured – moving effortlessly from guitar jams to Stax-style soul to Tower of Power horn work spiced with New Orleans funk, veering into Hendrixian psychedelic wah-wah and tastes of jazz-rock fusion. Sprinkled among the jammed-out selections off the new album were chestnuts from the Temptations (“Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone”), the Beatles (“Dear Prudence”) and jazzman Les McCann (“Trying To Make It Real Compared To What”). Amidst the funky opening chords of Allen Toussaint’s “On Your Way Down,” Brooklyn-based guitar slinger Eric Krasno strapped on his axe and got down to trading licks with King before the two locked into a harmonic groove.

Given the huge impression the Marcus King Band made at this Rockwood performance – and given that the new album features guests like Derek Trucks and Haynes himself – it seems a safe bet we’re going to hear a lot more from these cats in the months and years ahead. Catch this crew while you can still say you saw them when they were almost famous. ~Peter Jurew

The Marcus King Band

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