IF YOU GO:
Who: The Marshall Tucker Band
Where: 527 Main St.
When: Fri., July 17
Cost: $28; $40
Dad, is this some kind of weird Nintendo game?”
Before I attempted to cram that cartridge into everyone’s favorite grey plastic box, he explained to me that it was something called an 8-track tape. Hmmm . . . this was new information. As we stepped out into the garage to have a listen on the “other” stereo, I had no idea of the joy that awaited me. I can’t think of a more classic introduction to the realm of 8-track nostalgia than The Marshall Tucker Band’s Searching for a Rainbow.
Well . . . maybe Bob Seger, but that’s another story.
What I heard from my dad’s old bachelor pad speakers was magic. I’d heard Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allmans and the Doobies, but this was different. With flutes and pedal steel it was like yacht rock for the Ozarks or cowboy jazz.
And these legendary dudes are coming to town July 17 at 527 Main St.
There are a lot of pretenders out there. “Fake” Southern vocal stylings and the use of traditional instruments to cash in on a current trend are practices I’ve railed against in these pages, but I promise that these guys are the real deal. I’m sure anyone spinning the FM dial has come across “Can’t You See” at some point. If not the Marshall Tucker classic, then at least the Kid Rock abomination. Expect it to be an epic “Free Bird” level experience.
And I’m sure that all the other hits will be well represented.
Rather than waiting around for my favorite songs, I plan to take it all in. The phenomenon of classic rock dinosaurs going back out on the road 30 years after their peak is intriguing to me. After touring the world and playing to rabid fans in sold out arenas and festivals, it must be a little weird to play in smaller clubs to an audience of people who weren’t even born when you were in one of the most famous bands in the country. I don’t plan to ask them what it was like then. I want to be there now soaking up some gritty stories about gold rush disaster and romantic calamity.
Even if you have to take a freight train, climb the highest mountain, find a hole in the wall?buy a ticket and come out and discover the magic that can only be found when you root around through your dad’s stuff. You always find something good.
