Greenville, SC · rock · blues rock · southern soul

The Marcus King Band

3 festivals played ↓

Greenville, South Carolina bandleader who sings and plays guitar with a weight well beyond his years — blues-rock rooted in Southern soul rather than revivalism.

Marcus King grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, in a musical family: his father, Marvin King, is a blues guitarist who had him sitting in as a pre-teen sideman on his own shows. That early stage time shaped a guitar style and a voice that sound older than his years, and he was performing under his own name before he was out of his teens.

The Marcus King Band took shape around him with drummer Jack Ryan, bassist Stephen Campbell and guitarist Drew Smithers, later filled out on the road by saxophonist Chris Spies and keyboard player Mike Runyon. The band paired King's guitar and heavy, soul-shaped voice with a horn section and long, loosely structured live arrangements, sitting between Southern rock, blues and 1960s and 70s soul, and built its following mainly through constant touring.

Their 2015 debut, Soul Insight, came out on Warren Haynes's Evil Teen Records and reached No. 8 on the Billboard Blues Albums chart. Haynes also produced the follow-up, the self-titled The Marcus King Band, recorded at Carriage House Studios in Connecticut for Fantasy Records and released in 2016. Carolina Confessions, produced by Dave Cobb at RCA Studio A in Nashville, followed in 2018 and gave the band its first entry on Billboard's Top Current Albums chart.

King has also recorded under his own name, working with producer Dan Auerbach on solo material that leans further toward personal songwriting and away from the band's extended jamming instincts, marking a quieter contrast to the group's live shows.

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rockblues rocksouthern soul