Earlier this week, Chris Stapleton called the Marcus King Band one of my new favorite talents, raving about the guitar playing and singing style of the groups namesake leader. King put both of those assets on display when he and the band played Goodbye Carolina on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Thursday night.
A track off Kings latest album, the Dave Cobb-produced Carolina Confessions, Goodbye Carolina became a brooding, methodical ballad on the Colbert stage, with King guiding the performance forward with his technical slide work. It all culminated in a greasy solo from King, whose climactic playing was complemented by the bands horn section of Justin Johnson and Dean Mitchell.
My dads a guitar player, so I was always really influenced by a guitar-driven sound, King told Rolling Stone of how he came to meld rock with R&B. Separately, I was influenced by frontmen and women, like Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin. Miles Davis, Coltrane, James Brown. People with attitude, man.
The Marcus King Band will open select dates of Stapletons All-American Road Show this summer and is part of the lineup of the 2019 Luck Reunion during South by Southwest. The groups next show is March 1st in Augusta, Georgia, with Tedeschi Trucks Band.