When Marcus King came into the scene, we all stood in awe for such a prodigious guitar player at such a young age. It was like a Joe Bonamassa all over again. When this kind of prodigy emerges to the mainstream surface, us, the regular humans don´t even measure with them, we just let them be on their own fantastic highway that runs above our routes. Just closing your eyes and listening to the music he makes and then realizing he is only 22 is incredible. Hopefully he will become an even much better musician in times to come, so far his new album singles are scorching hot.
Carolina Confessions
Carolina Confessions is the name of the album that The Marcus King Band is about to put out through Fantasy Records. The 22-year-old young front man assumes the composition credits of all 10 songs featured in the album and go the fortune of working with the amazing producer Dan Auerbach (Black Keys, The Arcs) and co-write a song with him. The killer band he got for the recording sessions had a backbone of the songs was in the hands (and feet) of drummer Jack Ryan and bass player Stephen Campbell. The arrangements took a different flight this time around and the band features trumpet by Justin Johnson, sax by Dean Mitchell and DeShawn Alexander playing keys. Before listening to any of the tracks, just by knowing these facts, we can hope for an eclectic, diverse record with virtuoso guitar playing on top.
Pre-release Singles
The band put out two pre-release singles named “Homesick” and “Welcome ´Round Here”. I came across them at Spotify with one of the algorithm suggestions and boy, was I impressed with the playing, the vibe and the overall feeling of them.
Homesick
It is a mid-tempo track with a subtle R&B approach and one of those endless choruses that goes on forever between the solo and the coda. It starts off with a guitar riff that encompasses a rhythm you will hear the entire song. Grammy Award winner Dave Cobb´s production really shines through and the horn section moves you away sonically from an otherwise very sad singing by Marcus. The solo is clearly fingerpicked and instead of going for an epic, huge guitar sound, it stays in your same reality, joins you.
Welcome ´Round Here
This second single is way darker than the first one and although Cobb´s production is impeccable; the track comes out a little dirtier with more grit of a fuzzed out guitar. The way it is sang clearly resembles a singer with a strong throat trying to convey a message through that comes straight from the heart. The guitar playing is, as usual, otherworldly and what goes on behind and all around it, especially when he goes into the ferocious solo is that the keyboards take the role of driving the band forward along with the horn section. This is definitely a powerful track indeed.
