The Marshall Tucker Band is a country rock band formed in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1972. If you’re wondering, Marshall Tucker was not a band member, but instead a blind piano tuner. The band had rented a warehouse room to rehearse, he had rented the room before them, and his name was on the key to the door. In a way, it’s kind of like how Lynyrd Skynyrd named themselves after their gym teacher.
Anyway, The Marshall Tucker Band have a classic rock staple in the form of their 1973 debut single, “Can’t You See,” but it actually did not enter the Hot 100 at first. When it was re-released in 1977, it peaked at #75. But why, you ask, was it re-released? Well, in January 1977, the band released their sixth album, Carolina Dreams. From that album came the band’s biggest hit, “Heard It In A Love Song,” which peaked at #14 on the Hot 100. The album reportedly went Platinum off the song’s success, and “Can’t You See” was re-released as the follow-up single. Sadly, there was never a re-release of the band’s only other top 40 entry: a 1975 single called “Fire On The Mountain.” But let’s get back to Carolina Dreams.
The album starts with “Fly Like An Eagle.” Confusingly, it isn’t a cover of the Steve Miller Band. It is still a good song, though. After that is “Heard It In A Love Song,” which I realized in a shock I had heard before. For a long time, I thought it was by Loggins & Messina. Regardless of who made it, the song is very nice. According to lead singer Doug Gray, guitarist and primary songwriter Toy Caldwell had worked on the song for a whole year. But Doug didn’t want to record it because it didn’t feel enough like Southern rock. Perhaps that was why, despite the song’s success, Doug felt that Caldwell would never write another song like it.
As I listened to the rest of Carolina Dreams, I kept thinking about Doug’s comment because multiple songs on the album don’t really sound like Southern rock. The seven-minute slow ballad “I Should Have Never Started Lovin’ You” doesn’t really sound like Southern rock. The upbeat Side A closer “Life In A Song” doesn’t really sound like Southern rock, though I do enjoy it. The songs on Side B are all more conventional country and Southern rock, and they’re all very good. But again, there were at least three songs on Carolina Dreams that the singer thought weren’t “Southern rock” enough.
If that isn’t an issue for you, then I would still recommend the album. “I Should Have Never Started Lovin’ You” is the only track I’d skip, but even then, I wouldn’t call it downright unlistenable.
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