Feb. 24, 1977 review: Marshall Tucker Band at the Century Theater

 


Harvey & Corky import a blast of Southern rock to help melt the snow still around from the blizzard.

 

Feb. 24, 1977

Allman Heirs Sound

A Bit Tuckered Out 

          Live music seeps out onto freezing East Huron Street and reminds all these fans jamming the sidewalk outside the Century Theater Wednesday night that they’ve lost that little bet they’ve made.

          It’s gotten risky to second guess Harvey & Corky on a starting time. Arrive 10 minutes late and here’s the Winters Brothers band advancing on a big one – “Shotgun Rider,” an outlaw tune that puts them firmly in the Allman Brothers camp.

          They’re like aliens, these Texas brothers, Donnie and Dennis Winters. Their accents are all but incomprehensible, as ours must be to them. Four of them – all but the drummer – have beards and shoulder-length hair under cowboy hats.

* * *

THROUGH Marshall Tucker Band’s avalanche of speakers, they sound great, better than their album, as they follow the Allman formula – soaring twin-guitar phrases laid over rolling honky-tonk piano.

          Dreaming numbers deviate from the Macon, Ga., gospel by going jazzy, taking up a Latin beat. Pianist David (Spig) Davis works up some delightful raves. The sell-out crowd, recognizing a smart bunch of good-time players, gives them an encore.

          After intermission, which brings a wall-to-wall throng to the lobby, the Marshall Tucker Band emerges in a style befitting the second most popular Southern rock band, after Lynyrd Skynyrd.

          A backdrop unfurls, revealing the stagecoach chase from their last album cover. They get a standing cheer. Everyone hearing the live broadcast on WGRQ-FM must wish they were here.

* * *

TUCKER OPENS strong with a lovelorn tune off their classy new “Carolina Dreams” LP, but the mood quickly gets killed by a poor instrumental mix. Tommy Caldwell’s bass resonates so strongly it distorts the rest of the group.

          Adjustments fail to cure it completely. Tucker’s sound system, built to handle large arenas down South, is just too big to turn down soft.

          High spirits follow Tommy’s brother Toy Caldwell with his excellent pedal steel guitar work on “Fire on the Mountain.” The two Caldwells and second guitarist George McCorkle, all wearing cowboy hats, find a triple rave-up brings them cheers.

          But despite their two encores, they’re a bit tiresome, considering they’re a big league band. Their solos lack variety and they last forever. And the horn player doesn’t fill those gaps in their sound where a piano player should be.

          As heirs to the Allman throne, they hearken to the elegant Richard Betts days after Duane’s passing. But before they take the crown, they’ll have to learn that elegance requires understatement.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Marshall Tucker Band in performance in 1977.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Bigger things were ahead for the Marshall Tucker Band. When they came here in 1977, they were on the cusp of the success of “Heard It in a Love Song” and “Can’t You See,” their two biggest signature numbers. And they’ve endured – even though the Caldwell brothers haven't. Tommy died in an auto accident in 1980 and Toy died in bed at home in South Carolina in 1993 from a heart attack. The band is currently on its 50th anniversary tour.

Lead vocalist Doug Gray, who’s the only remaining original member still performing with them, says in an interview on the band’s website: “People ask me all the time what I’m gonna do when I turn 80, and I always say, ‘The same thing that we’re continuing to do now.’ We’re road warriors, there’s no doubt about that – and I don’t intend to slow down.”

          Bigger things also were in the works for the Winters Brothers Band, which hails not from Texas, but from a little town south of Nashville. They were supposed to open for Lynyrd Skynyrd later in 1977 on the “Street Survivors” tour, but that fateful plane crash derailed their plans. In the end, they released a total of five albums and the band is still doing live dates. Dennis Winters is their ongoing founding member.

         The Century Theater setlist for the Marshall Tucker Band, according to setlist.fm:

Searchin’ for a Rainbow

Heard It in a Love Song

Take the Highway

Fire on the Mountain

In My Own Way

24 Hours at a Time

Ramblin’ on My Mind

(encore)

Can’t You See

This Ol’ Cowboy 

          This seems short. A week earlier, at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, N.J., setlist.fm has them playing these songs: 

Fly Like an Eagle

Long Hard Ride

Searchin’ for a Rainbow

I Should Have Never Started Lovin’ You

Heard It in a Love Song

Take the Highway

Fire on the Mountain

In My Own Way

Never Trust a Stranger

Ramblin’

Can’t You See

This Ol’ Cowboy

Will the Circle Be Unbroken

24 Hours at a Time


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