Marcus King
Young Blood
(American Records/Republic)
3 1/2 out of 5 stars
Videos by American Songwriter
It’s no surprise that Gov’t Mule frontman Warren Haynes is the chief mentor and one-time producer for young singer/songwriter/guitarist Marcus King. The up-and-coming artist not only plays soulful blues rock with Haynes’ intensity but shares a similar gruff, emotional vocal style, and his playing slices with a comparable edge.
Haynes might still be a supporter, but Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach has taken over as the big star supporting the burgeoning roots rocker. Auerbach produced and co-wrote the material on King’s previous 2020 solo album and returns to do the same for this follow-up. Although there were two early releases with his initial outfit (appropriately titled the Marcus King Band), the frontman decided to take full responsibility for these recent recordings, jettisoning the other guys and the “band” moniker, at least for the time being.
Auerbach keeps the sound lean with just bass, drums, and King’s six-strings anchoring the majority of these dozen smokers, occasionally adding a second guitar to bolster the sonic attack. The result is tight, tough soul blues rocking with echoes of The James Gang, older ZZ Top, and sure, Gov’t Mule. Lyrically King addresses how his demons have held him back (There’s always a dark cloud hangin’ around, bringing you down he sings on the soul-infused “Dark Cloud”) and asks others for assistance with his vices on the swampy, oozing “Rescue Me” (Hold me down, don’t let me get any higher/Turn me around, pull me away from the fire, he sings before grinding out a wrecked guitar lead).
On “Pain” and “Aim High” King latches onto short, sharp, immediately memorable riffs that push rugged drums as his vocals reflect some of Paul Rodgers’ chest-beating, sandpaper, and honey inflections. He goes heavy for the sludgy, almost metal-ish lick attached to “Good and Gone,” a story told by the protagonist, the illicit lover of a woman whose husband is on the hunt for him. The guitar break halfway through expresses the anger and frustration of those words. Auerbach’s mellotron brings a ghostly, flute-ish flourish to the cowbell-punched mid-tempo plucky “Blood on the Tracks.”
Perhaps the most pertinent lyrics appear in the self-descriptive “Hard Working Man” (also the first single) where King takes the voice of a blue-collar laborer putting in overtime to be with his girlfriend. One look at King’s aggressive tour schedule (pre-pandemic he was averaging 200 nights a year) and you understand how closely he associates himself with that character.
Marcus King isn’t pushing any boundaries on the leathery Young Blood, he doesn’t need to. His talents as songwriter, singer, and guitarist are skillfully displayed in these dozen roots rockers that any musician in this genre would be proud to have crafted with the energy, enthusiasm, and sheer professionalism he displays.
