Marshall Tucker Band-Anthology

Anthology-The first 20Years

Their first three albums (Self-titled, A New Life and Where We All Belong) are the Holy Trinity of Southern Rock. If you want the best of MTB you can't go past these 3 albums then you can dip your toes into their other Capricorn albums at your leisure. The Capricorn albums are their best, especially those recorded before the death of co-founder and criminally under-rated bass player, Tommy Caldwell. The band blended elements of country, jazz and blues into their superb material, written in the main by Toy Caldwell, guitarist extrordinaire. Their biggest hit, "Heard It In A Love Song", is not one of their stongest numbers but it allowed them to keep on going for which we all must be grateful. This Anthology album is a fair representation of their work over a very long period of time and is the album to get if you wish to own just one album. It misses many of their better songs but has to include some of their longer jam tracks which cuts down the number of tunes one can squeeze onto a double CD. There are, in fact, quite a few glaring omissions. Their "Capricorn Years" Anthology is probably a better buy but it is currently out of print and even it has its faults; too many single/edited versions. This all means that there is still not a definitive MTB Anthology album out there. The perfect Anthology/Box Set would include most of their first 3 albums, a heaping of their best from the rest of the Capricorn material and a sampling of their later material. All this should be Remastered. Include a comprehensive booklet with all the original album artwork (superb) and a concert DVD which shows Toy Caldwell playing up a storm. This would be about a 4 disc set at less than $50 and would be a fitting tribute to one of the greatest bands of the last 30 years. It's the first collection to pull together all the highlights from this seminal Southern rock band, with notes, a 24-page booklet and a CD-ROM video clip of a 1981 live performance of Fire on the Mountain as a bonus! Includes Take the Highway; Can't You See; Heard It in a Love Song; Searchin' for a Rainbow; Fire on the Mountain; Last of the Singing Cowboys; Long Hard Ride; Ride in Peace; Running Like the Wind , and more. 32 tracks!