Album Review – The Marcus King Band’s “Darling Blue”
Southern rock (#562) and Country Soul (#577) on the Country DDS.
If you wanted to be all buzzy and clickbaity about it, you could proclaim “Marcus King goes country!” or “Marcus King releases a country album!” But that’s not really what’s going on here. It is the moment where the sounds and collaborations from this modern guitar god veer more country than any other time in his past, which is welcome news to many discerning country fans. In truth though, this really is an album about home. And whenever you sing about home, country sounds and sentiments are never too far behind.
Marcus King’s music has always been comfort food for the soul, and a long line has formed of performers wanting to collaborate with him in country music and well beyond, which Marcus been more than happy to indulge. It seems like he’s everywhere these days in music and entertainment because everyone wants to get a little bit of that greasy, soulful sound on whatever they have cooking.
On his new album Darling Blue, Marcus King teams up with Kaitlin Butts and Jamey Johnson for a song, Billy Strings for another, and Jesse Welles also makes an appearance. Also making appearances are steel guitar, fiddle, and banjo, played by the likes of Paul Franklin and Billy Contreras. Marcus King writes much of the material himself, though country songwriter Hillary Lindsey appears in the credits, as does Cameron Duddy and Jess Carson of Midland. It may not be a country record, but Darling Blue is distinctly a Nashville record.
The song “Honky Tonk Hell” became the quickest cut from Marcus King’s catalog to make it to a million spins, in part because it combines his old school soul and Southern rock thing with an up-tempo Jerry Reed country kick. The next song on the album “Heartlands” makes use of an excellent double entendre like only the greatest country songs can, and is driven by the fiddle. “Die Alone” is a little acoustic back porch mountain music tune. And you’re surprised near the end of “Levi’s & Goodbyes” that fiddle once again makes a surprise appearance.
But this is not a country album. It’s a Marcus King album, and the first he co-credits with the Marcus King Band since early on in his career. The balance of the album is that soulful southern rock R&B sound sometimes embellished with horns that you’re used to hearing from him. If you want to hear Marcus King tap into that sweaty FAME Studios sound, make sure you don’t skip over the sensational “No Room For Blue.”
One way you can approach this 14 track album is to consider the first half the more country and acoustic side, with the opening songs “On & On” and “Here Today” featuring Kaitlin Butts and Jamey Johnson surprising you with their country textures. Then the second half is what we’ve come to expect from Marcus King. One complaint that carries over from previous projects is how you don’t get a whole lot of Marcus King guitar work on this album, even though that’s really his calling card.
Produced by Eddie Spear who’s known for working with Sierra Farrell, and for being one of the few producers Zach Bryan ever agreed to work with, Darling Blue is more of a vocal album than it is anything else. This isn’t a knock necessarily, since Marcus has really mastered his falsetto. But you do crave a bit more stink from the guitars since this is so important to the Marcus King experience live. This is also more of a songwriter album, with the storytelling indicative of country coming up often.
Yet more than anything else, Darling Blue is a love letter to Marcus King’s hometown of Greenville, South Carolina, and the woman he’s chosen to spend the rest of his life with. Commitment, gratefulness, adulation, and maturation through his sobriety is the story this soulful, Southern rock album tells, while utilizing country music influences to give it that inviting down home feel.
8/10
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Purchase from Marcus King
September 29, 2025 @ 12:51 pm
This album takes the pieces and parts of what I liked from his 2018 album with his band and puts them into one place. “Goodbye Carolina” from that one is my version of the perfect Marcus King song. I appreciate ripping guitars as much as the next guy but for me the first half of this album (the “country” half) is fantastic. “Heartlands” has been my most played song over the last couple weeks since it was released. I expect it will end the year in the top 5 with JSB’s “Territory Town,” Jinks’ “Lost Highway,” Ashland Craft’s “Lie a Little and Kelsey’s “Comanche.” There’s my list for single-of-the-year nominees Trigger if you want to jot it down now!
Random sidenote – I was late to the party on Tyler Hatley and Justin Clyde Williams’ “The Dick and Tammy Show.” Not sure if I missed that review completely or didn’t dig in enough at the time, but as JB-Chicago would say – that one is getting a ton of spins during the morning commute.
September 29, 2025 @ 12:59 pm
This guy is a smokin,’ drinkin,’ pickin,’ singin’ machine.
September 29, 2025 @ 2:43 pm
Check out Marcus Kings 2015 album Soul Insight. Its my favorite of all of them, heavy on the guitar heroics. It really shows off his versatility , going into complex jazz chordings, blues progressions, more rock-centric stuff and a bit of that white boy soul as well. I tolerated El Dorado on the strength of The Well and a handful of other tunes. The last couple of Marcus albums haven’t interested me in the least.
This one has some real promise and I do think hes playing the Country field a bit to see what happens. Overall its a strong record, not full on Country but 3-4 songs are there. I love the mix of Southern Rock, blues, soul and country that he mixes so well. As a Southern Rock fan I think of bands like Wet Willie where you had a very soulful vocalist ( Jimmy Hall) who brought in all sorts of influences into the music as well as another lesser known southern band who did the same, Atlanta Rhythm Section. And of course we all know Marcus is a major fan of Marshall Tucker Band. ( hopefully that Toy Factory project gets released)
As far as I’m concerned, Marcus King is a net positive all around and he’s becoming a favorite of mine.
September 29, 2025 @ 3:34 pm
This is what I wanted the new Myron Elkins to sound like.
September 29, 2025 @ 4:51 pm
I love this album even if it’s missing that signature guitar work. Going right into the daily rotation along with Turnpike and Margo Price.
September 30, 2025 @ 4:54 am
My favorite album this year. I love the mix of genres across the album, and I think it is as cohesive as it is diverse, musically. I saw them a few weeks back at the Marcus King Band Family Reunion concert in Charleston, SC (with Jamey Johnson, Stephen Wilson Jr, Joshua Ray Walker, Molly Tuttle, and others supporting – what a weekend!). He and the band played a lot of the new stuff, and it sounded amazing live also.
September 30, 2025 @ 5:28 am
I really am not into the “soul” stuff at all. It generally is just oversinging to me and unnecessary. That said, there are some serious winners on this album. This dude is near the pinnacle of talent across the board.
September 30, 2025 @ 5:56 am
Along with being a country music fan, I have long been a fan of blues rock. So I have been on the Marcus King Band trail long before his collaboration with Dave Cobb brought Carolina Confessions to the attention of the Americana world. King has a unique voice, along with being a great guitar player, so I have generally enjoyed most everything he has released, but also sometimes miss that original Marcus King Band sound.
King, more of a solo artist now, has seemingly been all over the place as an artist over the last few albums as mentioned in the article. So I’ll be the first to admit that when Honky Tonk Hell came out as the first single, and then seeing the guests on the albums track list, my first thought was Marcus is doing a country album. Marcus himself has said that this is not so much of an attempt to release a country album, but more of an ode to his home of South Carolina. But if King decided to actually release a country album, this is pretty much what I would expect.
So far I’m digging this album as I do pretty much everything King releases, and think Honky Tonk Hell will go down as one of his best songs. I’ll still be crossing my fingers and hoping for return to the Markus King Band style album in the future though, or maybe another connection with Dave Cobb. I’ll take country Marcus King for now.
September 30, 2025 @ 9:43 am
Definitely one of my favorite albums of 2025. His best since EL Dorado, in my opinion. I’m glad he’s added a bit more country into the mix, but his strength (aside from his guitar skills) is his ability to channel those swampy, soulful influences from the 1970s.
October 1, 2025 @ 5:28 am
El Darado is probably my least favorite Marcus King album. Anything produced by Dan Auerbach comes out sounding like Dan Auerbach or the Black Keys instead of the artist he’s producing. There were some good songs on it though, and I agree with the sentiment on this album and King’s ability to bring that swampy soul influence.
September 30, 2025 @ 9:52 am
I thought some of his previous albums had some country influence. This has a little more. Good songs. Great sound. It might not be country but it is good music and well worth a listen. A classy album.
September 30, 2025 @ 6:53 pm
I’ve been to hundreds of concerts in my life. Marcus King put on the best live vocal performance I’ve ever heard. And ‘Honky Tonk Hell” was flippin’ out of this world in concert.
October 1, 2025 @ 4:39 am
i love this guy’s music, he’s a real talent but Honky Tonk Hell will forever be a (fantastic) Gabe Lee tune
October 3, 2025 @ 1:50 pm
Easily the best Marcus King album since Carolina Confessions. Is it perhaps not a coincidence that he also labels this one “Marcus King Band”? But I do think that we are in a day with no shortage of great singers but a shrinking pool of guitar heroes so I wish they would have stretched out a couple tracks.