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Kroger Symphony on the Prairie is pleased to welcome the iconic southern rock and country group, the Marshall Tucker Band!Â
The Marshall Tucker Band came together as a young, hungry, and quite driven six-piece outfit in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1972, having duly baptized themselves with the name of a blind piano tuner after they found it inscribed on a key to their original rehearsal space — and they’ve been in tune with tearing it up on live stages both big and small all across the globe ever since. Plus, the band’s mighty music catalog, consisting of more than 20 studio albums and a score of live releases, has racked up multi-platinum album sales many times over. A typically rich MTB setlist is bubbling over with a healthy dose of hits like the heartfelt singalong “Heard It in a Love Song,” the insistent pleading of “Can’t You See” (the signature tune of MTB’s late co-founding lead guitarist and then-principal songwriter Toy Caldwell), the testifying “Fire on the Mountain,” the wanderlust gallop of “Long Hard Ride,” and the explosive testimony of “Ramblin,’” to name but a few.
Indeed, the secret ingredient to the ongoing success of The Marshall Tucker Band’s influence can be seen and felt far and wide throughout many mainstream digital outlets (Netflix, Amazon, etc.). In essence, it’s this inimitable down-home sonic style that helped make the MTB the first truly progressive Southern band to grace this nation’s airwaves — the proof of which can be found within the grooves and ever-shifting gears of “Take the Highway,” the first song on their self-titled April 1973 debut album on Capricorn Records, The Marshall Tucker Band. “We had the commonality of having all grown up together in Spartanburg,” explains Gray about his original MTB bandmates, guitar wizard Toy Caldwell and his brother, bassist Tommy Caldwell, alongside rhythm guitarist George McCorkle, drummer Paul T. Riddle, and flautist/saxophonist Jerry Eubanks.
The Marshall Tucker Band’s influence can be felt far and wide through many respected contemporaries and the artists who’ve followed the path forged by their collective footsteps and footstomps. “MTB helped originate and personify what was to become known as Southern rock, and I was privileged to watch it all come together in the ’70s, night after night,” said the legendary late Charlie Daniels. “In fact, The Charlie Daniels Band has played more dates with The Marshall Tucker Band over the past years than any other band we’ve ever worked with. Even after all these years — after the tragedies, the miles, the personnel changes, and the many developments in the music business.”
Doug Gray sees no end to the road that lies ahead for The Marshall Tucker Band, whose legacy is being carried forward by the man himself and his current bandmates, drummer B.B. Borden (Mother’s Finest, The Outlaws), bassist/vocalist Ryan Ware, keyboardist/saxophonist/flautist/vocalist Marcus James Henderson, guitarist/vocalist Chris Hicks, and guitarist/ vocalist Rick Willis.
Jennie DeVoe will open for the Marshall Tucker Band!
Jennie DeVoe is an independent American Soul singer/songwriter with a unique Americana-Soul-Roots and Blues style of music that has earned her awards, national acclaim, loyal fans of all ages and from all musical genres and connects her to an audience like no other. Howard Dukes of Soul Tracks Magazine writes, “DeVoe has a big, expansive voice that can go from a Joplin-esque, throaty raspiness in one note to explosive heights with the next. She sings with an honesty that makes the listener believe she is baring her soul on every song. Her songwriting captures the wittiness, world weariness, hope and simple brilliance that is blues music at its best.”
DeVoe has released ten independent albums, 6 studio albums, 3 of which were recorded in England with acclaimed producer/musician John Parish. Her songs have earned her a Billboard Award, National TV Song Placement and National & International Radio Play and a Sony licensing deal for her album Strange Sunshine. She’s played shows with world renowned award winning artists including Susan Tedeschi, Joanne Shaw Taylor, John Hiatt, Lucinda Willaims, Jack Johnson, Bonnie Raitt, Betty LeVette and many more. Her style is original, soul-infused blues and Americana with award winning lyrics that have been compared to Dylan and Prine. Blues Revue Magazine’s Hal Horowitz, “DeVoe’s melodic, gutsy songwriting–pushed by a vibrant, multi-hued voice that can shift from a catlike purr to a gospel wail and a snarling rasp within seconds–this under-the-radar singer has the talent to be a major force on either side of the Atlantic.”