You can tell a lot about a musician by the artists they choose to cover. During Marcus King’s epic performance at O2 Forum Kentish Town, the 27-year-old singer/guitarist/virtuoso from Greenville, South Carolina tackles tunes by the likes of Blind Faith, Marvin Gaye, and Jimmy Cliff. Even Elton John’s Madman Across The Water gets a look-in. But these are no straightforward copy-pastes; King reimagines and inhabits these songs with all the skill and confidence of someone who’s been playing shows since the age of eight.
Apart from the experience, he’s certainly got the range. The son of a blues guitarist who also had his hand in the gospel scene, King’s earliest influences included southern rock (Duane Allman), country (Waylon Jennings), and — apart from his dad — the likes of B.B. King. He studied jazz theory and performance, and by the age of 17 had formed the blues-leaning Marcus King Band. With a CV like that, it’s perhaps not surprising that in the past few years, he’s also recorded a couple of solo albums produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, El Dorado (nominated for a Best Americana Album Grammy) and the more straight-ahead rock ‘n rollin’ Young Blood.
All this to say there’s a whole lot going on during his sold-out London performance. Apart from those reinterpretations of diverse classics like Trouble Man and Comin’ Home, King and his mostly bearded seven-piece band reimagine his own back catalogue. Covers and originals alike are stretched and twisted with stellar solos and extended instrumental jams led by a man who typically logs around 200 gigs a year and so clearly knows what he’s doing.
But even though the cheerful, gregarious King gets a lot of time to show off his impressive six-string chops, there’s plenty of room for other musicians to shine. The second guitarist isn’t relegated to playing rhythm — the Eric Clapton solo on Had To Cry Today turns into an epic duel.
The ever-present organ player is especially essential to a sorrowful Many Rivers To Cross and King’s own Beautiful Stranger and Fraudulent Waffle. The three-piece brass section — who double as percussionists (hello, cowbell) when it’s time to really rock (Lie, Lie, Lie; Dark Cloud; Good And Gone) — add the necessary warmth to soul shuffles like Wildflowers & Wine and extra fuel to the fire during epics like Aim High.
It’s one of those shows where the drummer gets two solos and King, at one point, changes his guitar mid-song.
Yet, for all the musical prowess on display, the most impressive instrument on stage is King’s voice. For many guitarists as talented as he is, vocals are an afterthought. Something to fill the space between solos. But King puts just as much passion into his singing as his playing. He belts his way Joe-Cocker-at-Woodstock-style through barnstorming Virginia and gritty Pain. He sounds like a bonafide ’50s crooner on Jesse Belvin’s Guess Who and a soul man through and through on Gaye’s Trouble Man. He even channels gospel on Madman Across The Water.
But it’s the touching, homesick Goodbye Carolina, which sees at least two actual lighters being raised in the crowd, that has King sounding his most tender, his most exposed, his most honest. Sometimes, just sometimes, less really is more.
Marcus King
O2 Forum Kentish Town, London
21st March 2023
Photo: Simon Reed
- This article originally appeared on Louder Than War.
Nils van der Linden 