Marshall Tucker Band: All Our Friends Tour
Sunday, August 10, 2025
Osterhout Concert Theater
Doors: 6:30 p.m.
Show: 8 p.m.
When you wake up and want to put a smile on your face, you think of the songs that always manage to reach down and touch your soul the moment you hear the first note. The Marshall Tucker Band is one such group that continues to have a profound level of impact on successive generations of listeners who鈥檝e been "Searchin鈥 for a Rainbow" and found it perfectly represented by this tried-and-true Southern institution over the decades. 鈥淚鈥檝e been in tune with how music can make you feel, right from when I was first in the crib,鈥 explains lead vocalist and bandleader Doug Gray, who鈥檚 been fronting the MTB since the very beginning. 鈥淚 was born with that. And I realized it early on, back when I was a little kid and my mom and dad encouraged me to get up there and sing whatever song came on the jukebox. It got to the point where people were listening to me more than what was on the jukebox! There鈥檚 a certain gift I found I could share, whether I was in front of five people or 20,000 people. I was blessed with that ability and I鈥檓 thankful I can share with others."
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 鈥 and they鈥檝e been in tune with tearing it up on live stages both big and small all across the globe ever since. Plus, the band鈥檚 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 鈥淗eard It in a Love Song,鈥 the insistent pleading of 鈥淐an鈥檛 You See鈥 (the signature tune of MTB鈥檚 late co-founding lead guitarist and then-principal songwriter Toy Caldwell), the testifying 鈥淔ire on the Mountain,鈥 the wanderlust gallop of 鈥淟ong Hard Ride,鈥 and the explosive testimony of 鈥淩amblin,鈥欌 to name but a few.
Indeed, the secret ingredient to the ongoing success of The Marshall Tucker Band鈥檚 influence can be seen and felt far and wide throughout many mainstream digital outlets (Netflix, Amazon, etc.). In essence, it鈥檚 this inimitable down-home sonic style that helped make the MTB the first truly progressive Southern band to grace this nation鈥檚 airwaves 鈥 the proof of which can be found within the grooves and ever-shifting gears of 鈥淭ake the Highway,鈥 the first song on their self-titled April 1973 debut album on Capricorn Records, The Marshall Tucker Band. 鈥淲e had the commonality of having all grown up together in Spartanburg,鈥 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. 鈥淭he framework for Marshall Tucker鈥檚 music is more like a spaceship than a house,鈥 Gray continues, 鈥渂ecause you can look out of a lot of windows and see a variety of things that show where we鈥檝e been and what we鈥檝e done, and how we鈥檝e travelled through time to bring those experiences out in all of our songs.鈥
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鈥檚 Finest, The Outlaws), bassist/vocalist Ryan Ware, keyboardist/saxophonist/flautist/vocalist Marcus James Henderson, guitarist/vocalist Chris Hicks, and guitarist/ vocalist Rick Willis. 鈥淵ou know, I think it was Toy Caldwell鈥檚 dad who said, 鈥楾here鈥檚 more to gray hair than old bones,鈥 and we still have a lot of stories yet to tell,鈥 Gray concludes. 鈥淧eople ask me all the time what I鈥檓 gonna do when I turn 80, and I always say, 鈥楾he same thing that we鈥檙e continuing to do now.鈥 We鈥檙e road warriors, there鈥檚 no doubt about that 鈥 and I don鈥檛 intend to slow down.鈥 May the MTB wagon train continue running like the wind on a long hard ride for many more years to come. One thing we absolutely know for sure: If you heard it in a Marshall Tucker Band song, it certainly can鈥檛 be wrong.
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