CONCERT REVIEW
Marshall Tucker Band Review
by Seth Rogovoy(PITTSFIELD, Mass. --) The largest crowd ever to attend a show at the nascent Studio on North Street packed the venue to near capacity on Saturday night to hear Doug Gray -- fronting the latest incarnation of the Marshall Tucker Band -- sing their favorite tunes by that Southern- fried hitmaker from the 1970s.
Despite the fact that an apologetic Gray was nursing a cold that made him hoarse, the show went off with nary a hitch, as the replacement musicians played note-by-note renditions of such well-worn hits as "Heard It In a Love Song," "Desert Skies" and "Searchin' for a Rainbow." What Gray lacked in vocal power he made up for in congeniality, and the enthusiastic crowd responded in kind to the band's feel-good brand of laid-back, country boogie.
Although part of the Southern rock renaissance of the early-to-mid '70s, Marshall Tucker was always hard to pin down musically, as it drew equally on country, blues, folk, jazz and other popular styles.
The strengths and weaknesses of this approach were all in evidence on Saturday night. The band was able to build momentum throughout its set with its ever- changing repertoire of ballads, slow rockers, jam sessions and dance tunes. The variety of its instrumentation, which included flute and saxophone along with the standard Southern-rock, twin-guitar lineup, gave the group an expanded palette of colors from which to paint its musical portraits.
Thus, a tune played early in the show was almost country-disco, featuring a Latinesque dance beat and jazz-inflected dual flute and guitar lines. "Take the Highway," one of the group's first hits, bore the unmistakable imprint of Jethro Tull, not only for the prominent flute lines but the meandering, prog-style jamming. The crowd was also treated to some very Allman Brothers-like, twin-guitar licks and some straight-ahead blues-rock. Smile for smile, it seemed a tossup between Gray and the crowd for who was having a better time.
The downside is that in the group's hands, most of its songs come across as undistinguished musical mush, a sort of easy-listening style for those who fear musical commitment. For example, as played Saturday night, "Can't You See," one of Marshall Tucker's greatest hits and arguably its signature tune, was stripped of all of its innate blues spirit, instead rendered as an anthem of triumphant nostalgia. This is a recipe for Twinkies, not transcendence.
In any case, the band put on a great show. David Muse, an original member of Firefall, has taken over flute, sax and keyboard duties from Jerry Eubanks recently, and he seems to have steeped himself in the group's recordings so much so that few probably noted the personnel change. Southern rock fans got an extra treat in that Chris Hicks of the Outlaws sat in for ailing guitarist Stewart Swanlund, and Hicks even breathed extra life into the group on a few vocal turns Gray gave him.
Despite the crush of almost 1,500 fans, it was fairly easy to navigate the roomy nightclub throughout the evening. Whether a listener wanted to join the crowd up close near the stage or preferred a more reserved perch in any number of places away from the crowd, the Studio offered numerous options. After the headliner retired for the night, the scene moved downstairs, where a DJ spun tunes for a packed floor of dancers.
Local country-swing band Out of the Blue seemed to have a hard time breaking out of the gate in its unenviable warmup slot, but it was not for lack of trying.
[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1996. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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Copyright © 1996 Zenn New Media, LLC
