The Marshall Tucker Band - Greatest Hits [2LP]

Southern rock rarely sounded as warm or as wide open as it does across this 2LP Greatest Hits from The Marshall Tucker Band, sixteen songs from the Spartanburg band's golden decade.

Rising out of South Carolina in the early seventies, the group blended rock, country, jazz and blues into something distinctly their own, with Toy Caldwell's thumb-picked guitar and Jerry Eubanks' flute setting them apart from their Capricorn Records peers. They toured relentlessly, and these songs became fixtures of American radio and roadhouse jukeboxes alike.

"Can't You See", Toy Caldwell's aching road song, appears here in its single version, as does the breezy, country-leaning "Heard It in a Love Song", the band's biggest chart hit. "Fire on the Mountain" spins a vivid gold-rush tale, and "Take the Highway" shows the loose, jam-friendly muscle that made them such a formidable live act. The double album also finds room for two extra studio cuts that round out the story.

Doug Gray's warm, weathered lead vocals tie it all together, sounding equally at home on a tender ballad or a barn-burner.

For anyone building a Southern rock shelf, this double album covers the essentials in one go, and it makes a fine introduction to a band that never got quite the credit it deserved.