And the Tucker Boys are cookin' down in Caroline

The South’s Gonna Do It, by Charlie Daniels Band:

Well, the train to Grinderswitch is runnin' right on time, And the Tucker Boys are cookin' down in Caroline

Following yesterday’s post on Grinderswitch, the second band mentioned in the song is Marshall Tucker Band (MTB). One of the more popular bands from the southern rock movement, with several radio hits in the 70’s, including Top 40 entries “Heard It In A Love Song” and “Fire on the Mountain" and the classic-rock classic "Can’t You See”. Typically, their best stuff isn't necessarily the hits... MTB is notable for not having anyone named Marshall Tucker in the Band. But that wasn’t too strange for a southern rock band, every Allman Brothers was offset by a Lynyrd Skynyrd, it seems. Anyway, MTB did feature another common southern rock thread, in brothers Toy and Tommy Caldwell. As far as Southern Rock credentials, they had the southern part down, coming from Spartanburg South Carolina...

Interesting note: Charlie Daniel’s album “Fire On The Mountain” (which includes "The South's Gonna Do It") was released in 1975… Marshal Tucker’s song “Fire On The Mountain” was released in 1975… coinincidence??? Regardless, the photo below was also taken in 1975, near Beckley, WV. That's Ned Rugeley, who, IIRC, pointed out that little bit of trivia to me around the time that photo was taken...

Unlike Grinderswitch, MTB is well represented in my music collection. And I saw them in concert several times, too. Most interesting was when they came to Duke during my college years. I worked Event Security and was lucky enough to be on the backstage crew. I’d like to tell you I got to meet the band and become best pals with them, but that would be a rather huge stretch. But hanging out backstage is always cool.