Sunday, 19 January 2020

The Marcus King Band - Carolina Confessions, album review

No Embarrassment, but Apologies

Soul and blues, elegant and scorching guitar, blistering vocal and emotive singing, a band full of horns and organ/keyboards and other sass and refinements. The Marcus Kind Band. Wonderful.

I am not embarrassed. I feel apologetic, but not mortified by any means. Why? [Well, you’d want to know what about first, surely, but I’m asking the questions]. Read my previous music post about King’s excellent solo album and my not having heard of him and/or with his band before.

For me, it is all down to the absolute excellence of the music out there. Yes, loads and loads of dross too. But whether it is the amount of good or bad, you can’t always get through it all. But what is superb will come around.

As I promised, I have searched more out, and Carolina Confessions is the first no doubt of some other exhilarating discoveries, so I’m the lucky one coming to this now. What a fine, fulsomely soul/blues/southern rock/ballad variations of aforementioned this is. I recommend also trawling through YouTube for the live showcases of fundamental talent - perhaps patronising to mention 'for someone so young' - but there you go, that’s another impressive factor. Check out especially Easy Eye Sound and Paste sessions.

One final observation, my observation in the previous review about the song Young Man’s Dream is as it stands – first impression – but I now know more of its introspection and honesty about a personal journeying, musical and otherwise. Knowing something about this song informs knowing more about the beautiful title track song on this album – how the leaving and touring and learning is personally profound, especially in the honest reflection of the author. There is another lineage in this song [and whole album], from Blood Sweat & Tears, the guitar out of Chicago, and Redding.


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