Magical Moment Photos

TOY CALDWELL OF THE MARSHALL TUCKER BAND (PHOTO/ART BY BEN UPHAM)

THE MARSHALL TUCKER BAND-
“THERE’S GOLD IN THEM GRASSROOTS”
THE GASTONIA GAZETTE
GASTONIA, NORTH CAROLINA
MAY 2, 1976

It’s 3:00 A.M. in the Capricorn sound studios on Broadway and while George McCorkle and Doug Gray of the Marshall Tucker Band get whipped in a game of Ping-Pong by the band’s roadies, down the hall in the main control room, Toy Caldwell, Marshall Tucker’s lead guitarist and songwriter, and producer Paul Hornsby are listening
to John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band add some banjo overdubs to Caldwell’s ‘Long Hard Ride,’ the title track to the band’s fifth album and their first recorded instrumental. Mark Pucci, Capricorn Record’s publicist, is also there, touting the song as the next ‘Rawhide’, but as a publicist he knows he’s able to do little with press releases to help Tucker.
Marshall Tucker is a grassroots band, and its own greatest asset for publicity. For the last three-and-a-half years, the band has been on a “long hard ride,” covering the country in a customized bus on a grueling tour schedule, trying to play most of their markets at least twice a year. “We play a place,” says Toy, “and when we come back, there are twice as many people as before. All those people who come out to see ya, that’s a weird feeling sometimes. Look at me! What the hell do they want to see me for?”
While Marshall Tucker worked on their latest album in Macon, Capricorn threw a party for the band, giving them gold copies of their first album, “The Marshall Tucker Band,” recorded three years ago. And on the basis of their grassroots appeal, two other albums have gone gold within the last six months, “Where We All Belong” and
“Searchin’ fora Rainbow.”
Four years out of being just another club band from Spartanburg, S.C.,
Tucker still comprises its six original members, with Caldwell on lead, McCorkle on rhythm guitar, Gray on vocals, Tommy Caldwell (Toy’s brother) on bass, Jerry Eubanks on alto sax and flute and Paul Riddle on drums.
Toy Caldwell and McCorkle played together in high school in Spartanburg, then in the early Seventies Caldwell formed a band with Gray and Eubanks called The Toy Factory. In 1972 they joined
McCorkle, Riddle and Tommy Caldwell and changed their name to the Marshall Tucker Band, after the owner of their rehearsal hall in Spartanhurg.
In May of that year Tucker played with Wet Willie, a Capricorn Records group, at the Ruins, a club in Spartanburg. “They heard our stuff.” recalls Toy, and told us to take it to Phil Walden (President of Capricornt. Hell, I never heard of the cat. Still, we drove down to Macon and dropped a tape off.” They were booked into Grant’s Lounge in Macon. “I went by there one night,” recalls Capricorn’s executive vice president Frank Fenter, and they sounded entirely different than anything we had on the label. Surprisingly, though, people compare them to the Allman Brothers.
Marshall Tucker’s first album was released in March 1973, and that year they toured as the opening act for the Allman Brothers, before being added to tours with Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Eagles. And, as the Tucker band developed into a strong touring band Capricorn’s natural temptation to do a heavy hype on them waned. “It’s easy for me to sit here, with three gold records,” reflects Jerry Eubanks, “and say, ‘No, I’d never sell out.’ But there have been many times when you’re broke and starving when you’d do about anything. Capricorn had the sense not to come to us and say, ‘You be that kind of band,’ or put us into the position of trying to fill large halls when we weren’t ready for it.”
Doug Gray is less analytical. “You could never imagine me coming out on roller skates; I’d probably trip over my hair. We kid each other and say, ‘Hey, I’m gonna dress up in tights tonight.’ But we laugh at people who have to do that stuff in order to sell a record. If they want to do it, fine, but not anybody in our band. Hell, what would your friends think?”
Toy Caldwell turned to the new album, set for release in June. “The tunes — eight of them — are there. The pickin’s there and the sound is crisp.” The album demonstrates Marshall Tucker’s amazing versatility, with a mixture of slow — and fast-paced luncs, heavily overlaid with country, rock and jazz influences. In this latest album, they’re not just another Southern band. “The country is ready for Marshall Tucker.” Phil Walden immodestly proclaims. “Groups like the Eagles have paved the way… and the Eagles don’t say ‘ain’t’ like Marshall Tucker says ‘aint.’

MARSHALL TUCKER BAND DISCOGRAPHY:
1973 The Marshall Tucker Band
1974 A New Life
1974 Where we All Belong
1975 Searchin’ For A Rainbow
1976 Long Hard Ride
1977 Carolina Dreams
1978 Together Forever
1979 Runnin’ Like The Wind
1980 Tenth
1981 Dedicated
1982 Tuckerized
1983 Just Us
1983 Greetings From South Carolina
2003 Stompin’ Room Only (1976 Live)
2006 Live on Long Island 4-18-80
2008 Carolina Dreams Tour 1977

TOY CALDWELL DISCOGRAPHY:
1992 Toy Caldwell
1998 Can’t You See (Live)
2000 Son of the South

CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE MARSHALL TUCKER BAND PHOTOS AND ART:
MARSHALL TUCKER BAND PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM
AND
MARSHALL TUCKER BAND ART BY BEN UPHAM
AND
MARSHALL TUCKER BAND FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM

DUANE ALLMAN JAMMING ON THE SKYDOG TRAIL DURING A RECENT DREAM. PHOTO ART BY BEN UPHAM.

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND-
“APPEARING IN CONCERT TONIGHT IN LOWELL”
BY NORMAN ZAMCHECK
THE LOWELL SUN
LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTES
JUNE 24, 1971

The first time I heard the Allman Brothers was in a red-clay ravine at Love Valley, North Carolina last summer, scene of a mini-rock festival that attracted more than 100,000 long-haired southerners.
People jammed the corral enclosure and the stage, pushing right up to the boxcar speakers, and camping way up in the pinestudded hills overlooking the area. At night Duane Allman’s wild guitar went off like fireworks over the hills, in a performance that ran non-stop for more than two hours.
The Allman Brothers were the main attraction at Love Valley, having emerged months earlier as the major group below the Mason-Dixon line, and the talk was that they were about to emerge nationally — an opinion born out by subsequent events, including the release of their second album, “Idlewild South”, and their billing as the final group to play at Bill Graham’s Fillmore East.
ROCK IS very much alive in the South, though dying off in the rest of the country, and the Georgia-based Allman Brothers are probably the best loud group going. Centered on Duane Allman’s impressive guitar he resembles Hendrix in power, reeling off explosive riffs, the group performs an intricate, tightly synchronized blues, with some great harp playing. The Allman Brothers will be heading off a concert tonight at Lowell Memorial Auditorium, which also includes Cowboy, a country rock group also from below the Mason-Dixon line.
THE CONCERT is the first venture of Lowell-based Mod Productions Inc. According to Carl Vallenti, one of the two partners in the company, it will be hopefully followed by other concerts, if things work out. Other performers who may be brought to Lowell include; Neil Young, The Who, and Santana, according to Vallenti. At a time when rock concerts are being closed down on all sides, a show in Lowell is no mean accomplishment. Vallenti says he has been working for more than a year to get a location. Another request, to stage a concert at Cawley Stadium, was turned down last summer. “I want to do it for the young people here, Vallenti says. “Lowell’s a lost city, absolutely nothing to do. We need something like this.”
Sound will be provided by the same company which handled Woodstock, Love Valley and numerous other festivals. Tickets go for $4.00 at the door, or can be picked up at Metro Music, Harvey’s Bookland, Zepplin Middlesex and Garnick’s.

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO SEE “ROCK ART”:
ROCK ART BY BEN UPHAM

RICKY HIRSCH AND JIMMY HALL OF WET WILLIE ON STAGE AT WINTERLAND ON 4-17-76. PHOTO BY BEN UPHAM.

WET WILLIE
“SOUTHERN AND PROUD OF IT”
BY CARL UETZ
THE ALTON TELEGRAPH
ALTON, ILLINOIS
AUGUST 10, 1974

The Wet Willie Band hails from Macon, Georgia and like many other southern rock groups they are slowly making their name known nationally. Beginning a few years back with the Allman Brothers Band, there has been a steady flow of new groups coming up from the south.
The Marshall Tucker Band ahd Lynyrd Skynyrd are the most prominent to follow the Allmans but then comes a distinctively different Georgian act belonging to Wet Willie. Previous groups from the south have played a more mellowed type of rock completely characteristic of their region. The first three groups all had this similarity. But wet Willie does not. They sound more like an east coast boogie band, in the vein of J. Geils Band. They feature a dynamic lead singer, saxophonist and harmonica player Jimmy Hall.
They play a very sophisticated style of music and are very deliberate on stage.
Their routine is extremely tight showing the work they have done over the past five years as members of the same group. Wet Willie has been traveling the country for three years but the intensity of their work has picked up recently and things look good for the group.
Lead guitarist Ricky Hirsch said the group will be back in the studio in October for another album’and he believes it will be the biggest success thus far for the musicians.
The band has been touring solidly almost all year. Hall said the group
toured from early March until the 26th of July with a total of only ten days off. Then, after a week of break and relaxation, it was back on the road last week as a warm-up act for War. The current tour, which included a Mississippi River Festival date this week, will last until mid-September the singer said. The group’s first big tour was the early 1974 tour, the Georgians performed as the opening act for Grand Funk Railroad which
included a visit to St. Louis. “Oh, yeah,” drummer Lewis Ross recalled. “We played in that terrible hall that they throw everybody into.” Did he mean Keil Auditorium? “That’s it,” he said with a definite tone. “It’s echo on echo in that place.”
The MRF wasn’t much better for them but they thought the crowd had a lot to do with it rather than the site or the sound. “Every time we play with War it is pretty strange,” Hall said. The singer believes that Wet Willie just doesn’t pull people to a concert which headlines War. He knows the people want to hear War but it bothers him nonetheless. It is not that he thinks War is not a good band, he believes the opposite. He just says War’s crowd is “too laid back” and relaxed for their energetic band of music. “Even War was having trouble getting the crowd going early in the tour,” he said The first tour was the other way around for Wet Willie. On that tour they stole the show from headliner Grand Funk. Hirsch simply said. “We killed ‘em. I mean, we just murdered “em.”
But the group wants to end the days of opening shows and are on their way to being a headline act. At least in small clubs and halls. Hall, whose brother plays bass in the group and his sister sings, said the group is playing the smaller concert halls and they find it easier to play good. He said the crowd is there to see them and hear their type of music. It is easier for with his strong southern sound. “They always had trouble until they got to ‘Cisco Kid.’ So now they have started opening with it and it works every time.” He was right. War did open with their successful single and the crowd seemed to enjoy it thoroughly allowing them to build up stronger communication from the stage at these concerts.
Hall is an unorthodox performer in an unorthodox band. His stage presence seems to be natural. (In place of acting out a role on stage. A strong movement has been made that way in rock). He moves almost constantly as he plays harmonica and saxophone. When he sings he is marching or dancing back and forth the entire width of the stage. He is energetic to say the least.
The show is extremely well planned but they leave enough room for improvisation. Many of the songs are interconnected and when they are not, the breaks between one song and the next are short. But within almost all of the songs is left an opportunity for the musicians to take-off and ad lib through a few minutes of solo. This gives the group increased interest.
The unorthodox part of the show comes with the very unusual, timing and breaks in the group’s songs. They are constantly suprising the listeners because their style is so much their own, that people are just not used to the music. If Wet Willie has enough tricks to keep this up for a while their chances for success will be greater. In the meantime Wet Willie will be using their southern origin as a selling point as they hope for success. All of the southern rockers show great pride in their home land. Repeatedly through Wednesday’s set, Hall told the crowd that the group hailed from Georgia. The pride for the south is evident in one of the groups songs titled “Alabama.” The opening lines of the song, written by the group’s guitarist Hirsch, are as follows: “They talk about you, They say these bad things, “They just ain’t seen all the joy you can bring.” But the flow of groups, from Georgia at least, may be near the end according to Hirsch. ‘”There just aren’t any young musicians down there,” he said. Many groups, seeking the new southern popularity as a selling point are trying to
launch careers from this area he added, “But most of them came from Kansas or someplace else, and claim to be from Georgia or Alabama.”
All of Wet Willie’s musicians were anxious to talk. They wanted to know what kind of air play they are getting on the radio in this area, particularly their single “Keep On Smilin’.” They are anxious to become popular and they want to spread their music to a wider audience. They came from the south, up the midwest, and after Wednesday’s MRF concert they were prepared to go elsewhere to advertise their sound. Where Wet Willie was headed next, they said they did not know. They didn’t even seem to care. They’ll just keep on smilin’ and keep on playin’..

WET WILLIE DISCOGRAPHY:

1971 Wet Willie
1972 Wet Willie II
1973 Drippin’ Wet (Live)
1974 Keep On Smilin’
1975 Dixie Rock
1976 The Wetter the Better
1977 Left Coast Live
1977 Greatest Hits‡
1978 Manorisms
1979 Which One’s Willie?
1994 The Best of Wet Willie (Live)
2003 20th Century Masters,The Millennium Collection
2004 High Humidity (Live)
2005 Epic Willie (The Epic Recordings)
2005 Keep on Smilin’/Dixie Rock
2006 Playing Live Tonight: The Wet Willie Band

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO SEE WET WILLIE PHOTOS:
WET WILLIE PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM

BUGS HENDERSON PLAYING THE BLUES IN MOSCOW, ID. ON APRIL 26, 2009. PHOTO BY BEN UPHAM.

BUGS HENDERSON
“BLUES ALONG THE RED RIVER”
BY TARA SOMERVILLE
TAOS NEWS
TAOS, NEW MEXICO
JUNE 11, 2009

Red River’s got the blues this weekend (June 12-13) and its jagged, soulful sounds will take us from Chicago to Texas and all the way down to Cajun country. It’s the first ever River & Brews Blues Fest, and the main event features four world class bands Saturday (June 13) from 11 a.m. -7p.m. at the Slope of the Red River Ski Area next to the Lift House. Tickets are $10 for a full day of music and gates open at 9 a.m.
An open mic kicks off the event Friday (June 12) at 5 p.m. at the Lift House, which is free of charge, and everyone is welcome to perform or listen. Headlining Saturday’s show will be Texas blues legend Bugs Henderson and the Shuffle Kings.
A performer for over 40 years. Bugs has “shared the stage with icons such as B.B. King, Freddie King, Eric Clapton and Roy Buchanan. He plays a scorching mix of blues, jazz, swing, funk and “just about anything else that can be played on six string, “he says. Texas Music Magazine described his music as, “Some of the most exciting rock ‘n’ roll of the era, driven by searing solos that sound like Henderson cutting his way out of a monstrous tangle of guitar strings.”
He’s played a six-string since he was six and began to really define his style in the 1970s. “Blues was all that mattered to me; no other music was worth a damn,” he says. This was around the time when he moved from Tyler, Texas, to Dallas to take part in the scene at a bar called “The Cellar.”
“It was this big black room. It had a red light that came on when the cops were coming and another light for fights,” he explains. “They ran four bands in a night and everybody played original music. We usually didn’t leave until four in the morning. It was the best thing that happened to my music.”
After honing his passion at “The Cellar” he joined fellow Texas guitarist John Nitzinger’s band and went on to open for artists such as the Allman Brothers, B.B. King and Leon Russell. After his first record, “At Last,” he went on to record 13 other albums over the span of four decades.

BUGS HENDERSON DISCOGRAPHY:
1978 At Last (Live)
1981 Still Flyin’
1986 Texan Eagles
1988 American Music
1993 Years in the Jungle
1994 Daredevils of the Red Guitar
1995 That’s the Truth (Live)
1996 Four Tens Strike Again
1997 Legendary Jams (Live ’76-’80)
1998 Have Blues, Must Rock
2000 Call of the Wild (Live)
2001 Adventures of the Shuffle Kings
2003 We’re a Texas band (Live)
2004 Stormy Love
2008 Blue Music
2009 Vienna Calling

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO SEE BUGS HENDERSON PHOTOS:
BUGS HENDERSON PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM