Darling Blue is the Marcus King Band's first album since 2018’s Carolina Confessions. This might sound weird about a group that has been road warriors since they debuted with 2014’s Soul Insights. But King’s last three albums have been solo efforts, recorded with producers Dan Auerbach and Rick Rubin and their crews of session musicians.
While King says he learned a lot working with these seasoned pros, he was eager to get back to working with his road band. Emphasizing this back-to-his-roots approach, King recorded Darling Blue at Macon, Georgia’s Capricorn Studios, where the Allman Brothers Band, Marshall Tucker Band, Wet Willie and many others recorded landmark Southern music.
“It was really healing to be back in that room,” King says. “And just to be in Macon, a city with a lot of magic and musical history.”
Darling Blue represents a huge leap in King’s songwriting, with confessional lyrics and earnest love songs that never sound contrived. Musically, it shows King and company leaning into country sounds, with plenty of acoustic guitars and fiddles.
The King band has toured in recent years with Chris Stapleton, the Zac Brown Band, and are hitting the road with Dwight Yoakam and Eric Church. Guests on Darling Blue also include bluegrass king Billy Strings and country crooners Jamey Johnson and Kaitlin Butts. There is also les shredding on Darling Blue, but plenty of tasty playing by both King and guitarist Drew Smithers.
“We just tried to play to fit the songs and I’m proud that everyone did that so well,” King says.
The album’s Americana blend also shows the influence of Motown, Sly and the Family Stone and King’s beloved South Carolina homeboys the Marshall Tucker Band. King’s passion for Tucker is highlighted by his role in the Toy Factory Project, a group put together by MTB founding drummer Paul T. Riddle to pay homage to his original band.
It also features Charlie Starr (Blackberry Smoke), bassist Oteil Burbridge (Dead and Company, Allman Brothers), keyboardist Josh Shilling and fiddler Billy Contreras, who also plays on Darling Blue. The band debuted last summer with a single show, with more to come, as well as an album that also features Derek Trucks.
“I was very excited to breathe new life into this music that I hold so dear and that I've been so influenced and encouraged by,” King says. “and it made recording at Capricorn all that more special.”
Why did you choose to work at Capricorn Studios, an intimate place with an incredible history?
“It was the first time the band and I had been in the studio together in a minute. The band is really me and my drummer, Jack Ryan. We started the band together and it was time for us to get back in the studio together. We settled on Capricorn because we wanted to feel like we were at home, and we wanted to echo the influence that the bands that recorded there had on us.”
Why did you not record together for so long?
“I moved to Nashville and Jack was back in the Carolinas and was working on a side-project. I was working with Dan Auerbach, who likes to have a house band, sort of a Southern fried version of Phil Spector's wall of sound.
“He works with the remaining Memphis boys who played on Dusty Springfield’s Son of a Preacher Man and Elvis’ Suspicious Minds and a lot of other stuff that I love. I grew a lot from the incredible experience of working with all those guys, as well as with the people Rick Rubin brought in for Young Blood, but it’s just different.”
Musically, you've moved towards Americana, with more country influence, more acoustic guitar, different songwriting. Is this just a natural evolution?
“As I've grown as an artist, I've gotten more confident in my songwriting and more meaningful with the lyrics. I have a better chance of articulating what I want to say and I feel the song deserves to be heard in the best light.
“I wouldn't say that the playing was gratuitous on our past works, but it was more instrumentally focused. When we play live, we stretch all these songs out and leave room for improvisational creativity, but the songwriting has progressed and evolved, so we fell in line behind that.”
I think the songs sound very natural.
“Thanks. I'm so proud of this work, and it did happen organically. It’s not contrived in any way. There’s room for pop country and hip-hop country - and there's certainly room for Southern rock country, which is what I think we do. I love the fans that we've met being out with Chris Stapleton and Zac Brown Band. The country community is a strong, loyal fanbase.”
You have some interesting guests here, including Billy Strings.
“Yeah, we have my old neighbor William on there. Me and Bill used to be neighbors over in East Nashville and I love that guy so much. The song is just a cowboy number, inspired by people like Toy Caldwell, but applying some of the real life strife that I've gone through lyrically. I heard Billy on it right away and he was kind enough to give me some of his busy time.”
Your playing has shifted along with your songwriting, with less overdrive and more Tele sounds. Which shift came first?
When I'm at home, I don't like to touch the guitar. I play a lot of piano, which I write on. Or I'll sit and I'll play my pedal steel guitar or my fiddle, banjo, ukulele – anything but the guitar
“That's a fine question. When I'm at home, I don't like to touch the guitar. I play a lot of piano, which I write on. Or I'll sit and I'll play my pedal steel guitar or my fiddle, banjo, ukulele – anything but the guitar. If I do pick up a guitar it's a gut-string fretless number.
“The guitar is something that I'm so familiar with. It's like riding a bike or speaking the English language. If I moved abroad and only spoke Spanish for six months, it's not like I will forget how to speak English. Guitar is so deeply rooted in me. I like to play different instruments, and it helps my playing when I go back to the guitar.
“I read Victor Wooten's book [The Music Lesson] and he harped on the importance of being a musician not a bass player and I have always been influenced by that idea. It’s a holy experience to be able to sit at a guitar and say exactly what I have on my mind.”
You’ve had a second guitar player, Drew Smithers, in your band for a few years, but this is the first you’ve recorded together. I love the way you play together. Is the slide on the album all him?
“He plays most of the slide but Carry Me Home is us playing harmony, which evokes George Harrison. We met when his former band opened for us and we’d always end up hanging out, talking about music and life, and quickly became good friends.
“He’s one of the finest people I’ve ever known and the chemistry of how we played together was just profound right away. He was the only person I considered as a second guitar player and it was a way to take a little pressure off, being a frontman, but it became a whole new tool in our bag.
“We play like one player. Taking a page from Eric Clapton, it's inspiring to have another guitar player on stage and it makes me play better.”
Carolina Honey is an unabashed love song. Is that about meeting your wife?
“It is. It’s one of two songs that form the theme of the record, along with Die Alone, and they are about two days that happened back-to-back, the day before and the day I met my wife. Carolina Honey is about her ability to make me see that life was worth living. She gave me the kick in the ass I needed to start living it.”
I had gone back out on the road with the intention of drinking and drugging myself to death. When I met her, all that changed
Die Alone is a heavy theme.
“I had gone back out on the road with the intention of drinking and drugging myself to death. When I met her, all that changed. Growth is the hardest thing we can do as human beings, but after the fact you're thankful for it.
“My wife doesn’t put up with no bullshit, and I was just baggage. I was in real rough shape, but she saw the potential in me and helped me get back up on my feet. I'm always just floored by that woman and I’m thankful that she took a chance on me like she did.”
![The Marcus King Band photographed in formation in their rehearsal spot, with King holding a Telecaster, and Drew Smithers [far right] with a Gibson Les Paul Junior.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/4aQu4FdPmpsZsz2vGdAyVi-1200-80.jpg.webp)
It's great that you've been so open about your struggles, because they are so widespread in our world and not everybody is so open about it. And I believe that talking about it is helpful to other people.
“Thanks. I just talk about it like anything else going on. If I'm having mood swings or I'm depressed out on the road, I speak about it openly on stage and with my bandmates. It's just part of our makeup, especially kids in my generation.
If I'm having mood swings or I'm depressed out on the road, I speak about it openly on stage and with my bandmates. It's just part of our makeup, especially kids in my generation
“It's a mindfulness practice because you gotta do it every day or you'll fall back into those habits: depression, substance abuse, suicidal tendencies and all of that. It's got many faces and the ability to suck you back in even when you think you're doing all right.”
I love Honky Tonk Hell, which has a Sturgill Simpson vibe, with that country funk and the horns. Has he been a big influence on you?
“Oh yeah. I love Sturgill and I don't think I'm unique in that. He's one of the baddest motherfuckers on two legs and I'm always influenced by him, but it’s the horns that really gave it that Sturgill vibe and I was adamant about that.
“That was one of the very few disagreements I’ve had with my producer. I was so influenced by Sturgill’s magnum opus Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. I just want to do some country funk, man.”
Paul T. Riddle loves the term country funk. You did the Toy Factory Project with him, Charlie Starr and Oteil Burbridge, playing terrific version of Marshall Tucker songs. This feels like a labor of love for everyone.
“Oh yes. The Marshall Tucker Band is the best export we have in South Carolina, second only to peaches. As a kid, them being 30 minutes away from where I was made a big impression. Paul and I were connected by my guitar instructor, Steve Watson, and we immediately hit it off.
“When he asked me to be a part of this project I was honored. It's been a painstakingly slow process with everybody being in different label deals, but everybody's there for the right reasons: for that music and its importance and its cultural impact.
“I say that to my friends at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, because they’re not in there, which is a miscarriage of justice. The Marshall Tucker Band needs to be inducted right away.”
They all knew and respected your father, Marvin. Your grandfather was also a musician. What did he play?
“My grandfather was a country and western musician and a career serviceman in the United States Air Force. He met my grandmother when he was stationed in Munich, Germany. He was head of the culinary arts for the Air Force and was also in charge of the NCO clubs and their dances.
“He hired people like Johnny Cash and Charlie Pride, and they would come over to play, backed by his band, with him on bass. My grandfather was a career musician, a weekend warrior who played every honky tonk between here and the moon. He was one of my greatest influences and supporters.
“And he was just a bad dude. I owe so much to him and the rest of my family too because they always viewed music as an honest way of making a living, not a pipe dream. It was like learning the family trade.”
Your grandpa’s guitar is the Gibson ES-345 you’ve played a lot and now have a Gibson signature guitar based on. Do you still play it on the road?
“It depends. If I'm flying, I usually bring a backup model, but if the bus is leaving from Nashville, I'll bring it with me because nothing plays quite like it. It's a family heirloom and the most inspiring instrument I have in my arsenal.
“It was his dream to play the Grand Ole Opry and he won a fiddle contest to do so but was already overseas when he found out he had won. I always bring his guitar there, because that's the only way I can bring him to the Opry with me.”
What is the Telecaster that you're playing?
“I've been playing a 66 Esquire. I was drinking a lot and forgot that I bought it. The folks at Carter Vintage called me and were like, ‘You gonna come get this guitar?’ It's probably the only good thing that ever came from my drinking.”
Did you use any inspiring vintage gear at Capricorn?
“The Hammond organ and piano we used were Chuck Leavell’s, which is mega-inspiring. Otis Redding's upright piano is also there. It’s unusable, but we sure tried. Just having it there was inspiring. The whole town is.
I wanted to put bass on a track and didn’t have an instrument, so I called our good friend Richard Brent at The Big House Allman Brothers Band Museum... he brought me over Gregg Allman’s 66 Guild Starfire
“We went down to Rose Hill Cemetery [where four members of the Allman Brothers Band are buried] and spent a day visiting our heroes. You got a town where the Allman Brothers lived and Little Richard and Otis Redding grew up on the same street.
“I wanted to put bass on a track and didn’t have an instrument, so I called our good friend Richard Brent at The Big House Allman Brothers Band Museum and asked if he had anything inspiring of the bass guitar variety and he brought me over Gregg Allman’s ’66 Guild Starfire.
“It’s like riding Dale Earnhardt's motorcycle; it's not something that he's really known for, but it's still cool that Gregg Allman played a small part on this record!”
- Darling Blue is out now via Republic.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
