I’ve covered quite a few tribute bands over the past few years and find them to be intriguing, not to mention entertaining, … but not many of them have had the pedigree that The Shadow Riders —Tribute to the Marshall Tucker Band has. The band will be returning to Somerset Abbey for a performance Saturday, June 24 from 7 to 10 p.m. To that end I requested an interview with a member of that group. I was directed to Bruce Marshall, and when I called him at the number I was given, I was very surprised by the answer to my first question: Where am I calling … I’m not familiar with area code 978.
Marshall: You are calling Denmark, Maine.

Q: Denmark? That’s two towns over from where I live!
Marshall: Yeah, we’re in the Sebago Lake region. I’m a transplant from Massachusetts. I moved here full-time in 2015 to live the dream, get out of the rat race, and it’s been wonderful. It was the best move we’ve ever made.

Q: I concur, the phrase “Maine, the way life should be” is very true.
Marshall: It really is, there’s no question about it.

Q: So, talk a little about, no, talk a lot about, the Shadow Riders, if you would be so kind.
Marshall: Yeah, so the Shadow Riders is the tribute band I’ve had now for, oh, I don’t know, three or four years. It was a logical thing for me to do because … I played with Toy Caldwell back in ’89 and ’90. After he left Marshall Tucker, he hired me as his lead vocalist. So I got to play next to the guy who wrote the songs that we’re doing. It makes for a kind of an interesting connection. I got to see how they arranged that material for live (performances). Some of the songs Toy wrote we played a little different from Marshall Tucker, and he would say, “This was the way the song was written,” and Marshall Tucker kind of bent it into their own arrangements.

Q: For example?
Marshall: One song in particular is “Running Like The Wind.” We do it a lot slower than the original.

Q: I understand you have another band you’re involved with apart from the Shadow Riders.
Marshall: I’ve always had my own project, the Bruce Marshall Group, which has been together for coming up on 30 years now. I’ve got seven records out with them. I kept playing my own stuff, even when I was in the Toy Caldwell Band. When we came off the road, I was busy with my own projects, and that’s why I eventually left the band and focused on my own thing. But after this tribute craze hit about 10 years ago, I was thinking, “You know, there might be some fun to be had here!” So I got some great players, some of the guys in the band are absolute, in-demand session guys. I’m a lucky man; I’ve got a great line-up of people. It’s a six-piece band. We’ve got two guitar players, a female vocalist, bass, drums and a flute/sax player, so we’ve got the instruments covered for the Tucker stuff.

Q: Are you busy as a band?
Marshall: We do about 10 to 12 shows a year. It’s not anything that is our primary focus, but everybody that’s in the Shadow Riders is also in either their own band or other projects, like you always see in this business. But everybody loves the music, and we get to play some really fun places and fun events. It’s just another facet of what we do that we really enjoy.

Q: Where did the name Shadow Riders come from, just out of curiosity?
Marshall: “Shadow Rider” is actually a song that Toy Caldwell wrote in his solo days after he left Marshall Tucker, and for a while he called his band, which I was in, Toy Caldwell and the Shadow Riders. I think his manager talked him into dropping that after a while and just going back to the Toy Caldwell Band. But we actually had T-shirts made, so for about a year or so we were Toy Caldwell and the Shadow Riders. So in honor of my old boss, I thought I’d call the tribute band The Shadow Riders.

Q: Well, a few years ago the Marshall Tucker Band came to the Augusta Civic Center, and I got to interview a member. I hate to admit it, but I can’t remember who it was.
Marshall: It was probably either Doug Gray or Chris Hicks.

Q: It was Doug Gray, hearing that name reminded me.
Marshall: Yup, he’s the only original member left.

Q: I’ve got to ask, how do you choose what tunes to do? That band had so many albums in their illustrious career.
Marshall: Well, as you said, there’s about 25 albums out now, and a wealth of material, but the songs from the very first record to 1983, when the band essentially splintered, was the heyday of the band. That was when a.) They got more airplay than any other period; b.) They were a more popular live act than any other time considering they were one of the top acts in the country. I would say that the Eagles, the Dead and the Marshall Tucker Band were probably the top draws. So, to answer your question, we focus on the material between ’73 and ’83 — not that we only do the real obvious hits. We do some really nice B-sides and some gems that not everybody would know, but we definitely cover all the obvious tunes that people are just going to demand.

Q: Have you performed before up at Somerset Abbey?
Marshall: Oh yes, yeah. This will be our third show there. It’s a wonderful place, and a fun place to play, where you sound good. It’s nice for a concert. We do it once a year and really look forward to it.

Q: Is there anything, Bruce that you’d like me to pass on to the folks reading this article?
Marshall: Well, I hope folks will come out from all around and relive some of the greatest music from the ’70s and ’80s, from an American original act that is trying their best to reproduce that music and create wonderful time for all!

Lucky Clark, a 2018 “Keeping the Blues Alive” Award winner, has spent more than 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

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