Marcus King Band announces 'Darling Blue'
Alysse Gafkjen, American/Republic Records
The album is due this fall
Marcus King Band confirms their new album, Darling Blue, is set for release on September 26th via American Records/Republic Records.
The project finds Grammy-nominated Marcus King reuniting with his longtime live band for their first recorded album since 2018’s Carolina Confessions. Inspired heavily by his home state of South Carolina, the new album incorporates elements of country, folk, psychedelic rock, and Motown-era R&B and continues the conversation on King’s experience with addiction and depression.
“It truly felt like home,” King details. “Like my band and I were just working out songs to perform live but ended up creating a piece of recorded music for our fans to hear. Our goal is always tdo be a vessel and allow the music to flow through us and tap into something that’s already there in the room. But more than anything I’ve done before, this album felt like a real concerted effort to make music for myself, and for ourselves as a band—creating for the love of creating and being as honest as we possibly can. We put everything we had into making something that we love and we have faith that the audience will feel that and love it too.”
In celebration, the band shares two new songs from the album—“Here Today” featuring Jamey Johnson and Kaitlin Butts, of which King says, “The song came together in that organic way that happens when you’re just hanging out with friends instead of being on the clock.”
They also share “Carry Me Home,” which King describes as “the first song that poured out of me” for the album. The track reflects on his deep love for the Blue Ridge landscape and the place he calls home.
Leading up to the announcement, they’ve shared “Honky Tonk Hell”—which became the fastest single in King’s career to hit one million streams—as well as “Carolina Honey,” released on the heels of King’s electric Bonnaroo performance to a crowd of 40,000.
King just collaborated with Gibson for the release of his second signature guitar, the Gibson Marcus King ES-345.
The beloved Marcus King Band Family Reunion music festival will return for its fourth installment this summer, taking place in Charleston, South Carolina, for the first time ever. Over the course of two days—August 23-24—the festival will see performances by the Marcus King Band, Jamey Johnson, Stephen Wilson Jr., Molly Tuttle, Hiss Golden Messenger and more.
This year finds King hitting the road with Chris Stapleton, Cody Johnson, Eric Church, and Dwight Yoakam. In addition to King’s performance at Bonnaroo, he recently took the stage at CMA Fest in Nashville, performing at Nissan Stadium alongside Brooks & Dunn. He also played Spotify House before joining forces with Jordan Davis for a special performance of their unreleased track, “Louisiana Stick.” Additionally, King surprised fans with a pop-up set at Chief’s for SiriusXM and sat in with Lukas Nelson for his set as well.
1. On & On
2. Here Today featuring Jamey Johnson & Kaitlin Butts
3. Honky Tonk Hell
4. Heartlands
5. Die Alone
6. Somebody Else featuring Jesse Welles
7. Levi’s & Goodbyes
8. Carolina Honey
9. No Room For Blue
10. Blue Ridge Mountain Moon
11. Dirt (Nashville Version) featuring Billy Strings
12. The Shadows featuring Noah Cyrus
13. Pretty Petty
14. Carry Me Home
