When Marcus King calls his festival a “Family Reunion,” it’s more than just branding. As a kid, the Greenville, South Carolina, native would gather with relatives at his great-grandfather’s house for intimate pickin’ parties fueled by tables full of hot dishes and good vibes. Using that as inspiration, the fourth-generation Carolina musician launched his annual Marcus King Band Family Reunion in 2017, and for this year’s edition, King and Co. have moved the festival from its previous upstate locations to the Lowcountry, on the grounds of Firefly Distillery in North Charleston. The August 23–24 event features Jamey Johnson, Molly Tuttle, Stephen Wilson, Jr., and Hiss Golden Messenger, among others, with two shows from the Marcus King Band: a special honky tonk jam on Saturday and a regular MKB set on Sunday.
The Sunday slot will feature King and his band performing a handful of tracks from their new album, Darling Blue, which is out September 26. With guest spots from Billy Strings, Kaitlin Butts, Noah Cyrus, and Jamey Johnson, Darling Blue plays down King’s signature guitar fireworks for a clear-eyed focus on songcraft, matching sharp lyrics with instantaneous melodies that make for some of his most irresistible material to date. “Die Alone” could be straight from the Jason Isbell songbook, a tale of redemption with a monster hook and nary a wasted word. “Blue Ridge Mountain Moon” smolders with soul, while “No Room for Blue” is King’s version of classic Southern rock.
As a preview of the album—and a taste of what’s to come at the Family Reunion—Garden & Gun is proud to premiere a live performance video from this year’s Bonnaroo of the Darling Blue standout anthem “Here Today,” co-written by King’s pal the country superstar Lainey Wilson.
Watch the video below, and read on for our interview with King about Charleston memories, recording in Macon, and the nickname he’s comfortable with. Tickets for the Marcus King Band Family Reunion are available here, and Darling Blue can be pre-ordered here.
So why the move down to the coast for this year’s Family Reunion?
When I was a kid, my sister and I, my dad, and my grandparents would all hop into my grandfather’s Chevy Astro van and go to the beach for a week. We’d get one hotel room in Mount Pleasant or Isle of Palms. That’s about all we could afford, but it was a hell of a getaway for us. We’d go to Waffle House for breakfast and then hit the beach all day. So it just made sense to take the Reunion on the road this year to a spot that feels like home to me.
And it literally is a family reunion for you.
My grandfather used to organize our family reunions, and after he passed away, it gradually fell apart. So when we first started this event back in 2017, it was really just to bring everyone together. Now, up to a hundred family members attend.
That’s a big guest list.
That’s one of the biggest headaches of the whole festival. The guest list is insane [laughs].
What went into the decision to do a special honky tonk set this year?
That’s a nod to my grandfather. We try to do something in his honor every year. He played honky tonks his entire life. He was a career serviceman in the Air Force, but he and his band were out there every weekend. I just wanted to pick songs he used to do and have guests sing along with us. There’s some Charlie Daniels ones in there, some standards like “Orange Blossom Special.” I used to play that one with him all the time.
You recorded Darling Blue at Capricorn Studios in Macon, where the Allman Brothers Band and other greats recorded, and it’s the first album you cut with your whole band together in the room. Why now?
I’ve wanted to for a while, but it honestly felt right for the first time. The band underwent a few changes, experiencing a lot of personal growth both together and individually. We wanted to record at Capricorn in Studio A to capture the energy of that room. I mean, Otis Redding’s piano is still there. I got to play one of Gregg Allman’s bass guitars on a song. It helped put us at ease, as we felt right at home there pretty immediately.
Home is obviously essential to you, and there’s a whole lot of Carolina on this record.
Yeah, it was unintentional. But I started to notice it when I started putting the record together. My producer, Eddie [Spear], has a really good way of looking at records in a holistic way, which is my favorite trait in a producer, because as the artist, I think about it on a song-by-song basis. Eventually, I thought I was saying “Carolina” too much on this record. And he’s like, “Oh no, man, that’s fine. You’re the Carolina guy.” So we just leaned into it at that point, and I feel like it worked because we weren’t trying to make it work, you know? So yeah, I’m the Carolina guy. I’ll take it.
