enough highs on 'em for me." He said, "You take 'em. Keep 'em." He loved playing that dad-blamed guitar. He had a totally unique style. Toy was about half hillbilly, and about a quarter jazz, and about a quarter rock and blues and stuff. But no matter how far out he'd get jamming, you could always hear those country licks in there. He was just my friend - my buddy. I couldn't go to his funeral. At the time, my mother had cancer, terminal cancer, and the end was getting pretty close. We were playing up in New York, and I had taken my wife and my son just to spend a couple of days, and get away from it all. And it just floored me when they called me and said that Toy had died. I said, I just can't go. I just ain't ready for this. Even to this day - I don't know. There's a hole in the world since Toy Cald- well died. There's a place in the world that no- body else can fill that's uniquely shaped like Toy. And that's in my heart, and certainly in the music business." Friend and MTB band-mate, Doug Gray
says that he will never, ever forget Toy. "Without Toy Caldwell, there would have never been a Marshall Tucker Band," says Doug Gray. "There would have never been any of these great songs that are out there. When he did something, he did it right. If he didn't play a song just right, it would piss him off so bad, that he would be mad at him- self. And you don't find too many people like that, a lot of them will blame somebody else, and then all of the sudden, you're mad at your wife or something. Toy was always there, and he always made me feel good because he always had confi- dence in me." Former Allman Brother and current front
man for Gov't Mule, Warren Haynes, counts Caldwell among his early influences. "He was a writer who had the ability to put
into words what the common man felt and, as a guitarist, he had influences from country to jazz to B.B. King that he brought together in a uniquely melodic, soulful way. He always played from the heart." "Sometimes Toy was so musically intense
that he would blow me away to the point of breaking my concentration," recalls Paul T. Rid-
dle. "Tommy and the others would sometimes do that to me, but Toy was especially prone to giving me that reaction. Toy would come to a climax three times in a song and he would take it to an- other step. He always had a magic." "Toy was intense," recalls Allman Brothers
Band drummer, Butch Trucks. "I do miss him." Barry Borden (BB) , a former drummer for Mother's Finest and The Outlaws, who currently tours with The Marshall Tucker Band, has fond memories of Toy Caldwell. "A long time ago when I was with The Out-
laws, we did this big tour. It was Mountain, Foghat, The Outlaws. Toy was doing his solo thing then, but the way they booked it, he went out, but his band couldn't come out-for logistics or whatever. So, The Outlaws were his band for about three months. So, I got to play all of those songs with Toy. Toy was just the best. He was such a sweet guy." In 1997, Pet Rock Records released Can't
You See, a live set from The Toy Caldwell Band recorded at a club in Spartanburg in 1992, and Charlie Daniels' Blue Hat label is re-issuing Toy's solo album under the title "Son of the South." There are also rumors that Phil Walden plans to release some of Toy's early live tracks with The Marshall Tucker Band. Toy Caldwell will live forever in the hearts of friends and family and fans. We will love him al- ways, and remember him forever." •
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