band was performing regularly at a club in At- lanta called Richard's, where they were pretty much considered the house band. Toy was still working his day job as a plumber with his father, and driving back to Spartanburg every night after the gig. According to Paul Riddle, it was
Tommy Caldwell who finally got fed up with watching his brother bust his butt to hold onto both the day job and the night gig. Tommy made a trip to the record company, and while there is no record of the conversa- tion that ensued, suffice it to say he told the company that they were just going to have to front Toy some money so he wouldn't have to work the day job anymore. It was a typical Tommy Caldwell move. Along with the overwhelming success of his band, Toy was keeping the home fires burning by regularly calling his wife, Abbie and checking on her and his children while on the road. Toy had married Ab during the '60s, and she would remain his wife until his death. Together, they had two daugh- ters, Cassady and Geneal. Events had begun to turn in
Playing live was nothing short of a spiritual thing for Toy Caldwell and The Marshall Tucker Band. It was a feeling that tran- scended anything they had ever felt before. "We would go out on a limb every
night," says Paul Riddle. "It would be just rocking out loud like a thunder storm, and Toy would bring it all down to a whisper. He had a sense of magic, and his guitar would take us places where we didn't even know we were going." In the Fall of 1975, The Marshall
Tucker Band released Searching for a Rain- bow, their very first platinum album which
favor of The Marshall Tucker Band. They began to open for The Allman Brothers Band, and quickly made the move from packed-out clubs to packed-out coliseums. Their debut LP sold 500,000 copies and went gold. By 1974 The Marshall Tucker Band was hot, with a new LP, A New Life, and started playing over 300 dates per year. Later that same year, the band released their double- album set Where We all Belong, consisting of both live and studio takes, to critical acclaim. It was nothing but the good life for the band members. They had worked hard, and were reaping their rewards. "We just hop in a boat and take off,"
said Toy Caldwell in a 1975 interview. "Fish- ing will take your mind off everything. If you're catching fish, you don't think about nothin'."
Volunteer Jam. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Gary Rossington and Toy
peaked at #15 on the charts. Allman Brother and close friend Dickey Betts added his un- mistakable guitar work to the title cut, and the band displayed even more of their country roots with the "joy-of-fishing" song, "Bob Away My Blues," featuring the blues vocals of Doug Gray, underscored by some more fine pedal-steel work from Toy Caldwell. One night during the early part of 1977,
while The Marshall Tucker Band was getting set to do a gig in Atlanta, and everyone was pretty fired up and ready to go, their pro- ducer, Paul Hornsby walked in, and asked, in passing, if Toy had any new songs ready for the upcoming album project. Caldwell pulled out his acoustic guitar and started playing "Heard it in a Love Song." Hornsby loved it, and told him that it
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
