Marcus King Band’s highly anticipated album Darling Blue is out now via American Recordings/Republic Records. Listen to/share the album HERE.
Alongside the release, the band is sharing the new track ‘The Shadows’ featuring GRAMMY-nominated artist Noah Cyrus. Watch/share the official lyric video HERE.
“I wrote ‘The Shadows’ with [Nick Monson & Madi Yanofsky] featuring a devastatingly sweet, sweeping melody from Paul Franklin & Billy Contrares,” says King. “We really wanted to have the second verse belong to someone we thought embodied the essence of this song. Noah Cyrus immediately came to mind and when she agreed to be on the track, I knew it was meant to be. Noah’s voice brought the song to a level I didn’t realise it could reach. Truly an inspiration to share a song together.”
Ahead of the album, the band shared songs ‘Heartlands’ and ‘Here Today’ featuring Jamey Johnson and Kaitlin Butts, of which Billboard raves, “when their voices merge, it evokes a freewheeling, jam-band feel that dares fans not to sing along.” The band has also shared ‘Carry Me Home’, ‘Carolina Honey’ and ‘Honky Tonk Hell’, the latter of which became the fastest single of King’s career to hit one million streams.
The Darling Blue Tour (Pt. 1), a 13-date North American run, is underway now including stops in Memphis, Albuquerque, Little Rock and more. Support across select dates comes from Angel White, Laci Kaye Booth and Pearl. Tickets and more information can be found HERE, and see below for a complete list of dates.
It was recently confirmed Marcus King Band will make their Austin City Limits debut with a taping on November 4 for Season 51 of the beloved program.
Darling Blue finds Grammy-nominated Marcus King reuniting with his longtime live band for their first studio album together since 2018’s Carolina Confessions. Inspired heavily by the Blue Ridge Mountains in his home state of South Carolina, the new album incorporates elements of country, folk, psychedelic rock and Motown-era R&B, continuing the conversation about King’s experience with addiction and depression.
“It truly felt like home,” King details. “Like my band and I were just working out songs to perform live but ended up creating a piece of recorded music for our fans to hear. Our goal is always to be a vessel and allow the music to flow through us and tap into something that’s already there in the room. But more than anything I’ve done before, this album felt like a real concerted effort to make music for myself, and for ourselves as a band—creating for the love of creating and being as honest as we possibly can. We put everything we had into making something that we love and we have faith that the audience will feel that and love it, too.”
Recently, King collaborated with Gibson for the release of his second signature guitar, the Gibson Marcus King ES-345. Learn more: PEOPLE, Guitar World, Premier Guitar.
The beloved Marcus King Band Family Reunion music festival recently returned for its fourth instalment and landmark year in Charleston, SC. The two-day festival featured performances by Marcus King Band, Jamey Johnson, Stephen Wilson Jr., Molly Tuttle, Hiss Golden Messenger and more.
This year also finds King hitting the road with Chris Stapleton, Cody Johnson, Eric Church and Dwight Yoakam; additional info follows below.
Greenville, South Carolina-born, Nashville-based Marcus King started performing alongside his blues guitarist father when he was just eight years old. He made his solo debut with El Dorado (2020), produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. The album was met with widespread acclaim, with the Associated Press calling it “a definite high point of 2020.” It went on to earn King his landmark Grammy nomination for Best Americana Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.
He followed up the success of El Dorado with Young Blood (2022), also produced by Auerbach. His second album debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Blues Albums Chart, the magazine described it as a “staggeringly confident work.” Last year King returned with his third album, Mood Swings, produced by Rick Rubin, of which Rolling Stone said, “he…goes for something much more daring, vulnerable, and openhearted.”
