The Steel Guitar Forum

Searchin For a Rainbow was another one.

I liked Toy's playing on the MTB cuts.

I always liked his and Jeff Newmann's playing, but never thought of telling Bud C that I wanted to play like either of them.

We never talked that much though..



EJL<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Eric West on 10 October 2005 at 07:19 PM.]</p></FONT>

I have "dual citizenship" in South and North Carolina.

Marshall Tucker was a blind piano tuner who lived and worked in Columbia- I don't know if he's still living. He used to tune my mother's piano in Cola., before my parents moved down to Aiken, SC. The way I heard it, George McCorkle's brother (I think his name is Chuck, also a guitar player) was living in Columbia and the boys were playing and rehearsing there in town. The place they were using had a piano, and Mr. Tucker had been there to tune it. They came across his business card, and you can figure out the rest of the story. It is a cool name, isn't it?

I ran into George McCorkle 15 years ago, backstage at a Charlie Daniels show in Columbia. He's a really nice guy. George was the "rhythm" player, but was an integral band member who wrote a lot of their well-known tunes.

Tommy was the bass player, and was a driving force onstage and offstage.

In addition to the untimely deaths of Toy and Tommy, a third brother, Tim, passed away- around the same time. When Charlie plays in S.C., he usually does "Can't You See" and dedicates it to Toy, Tommy and Tim.

With the great Paul Riddle on drums, Tommy on bass, and George on rhythm guitar, those boys could solid lay down a groove. Never underestimate the importance of those three people in any band. Toy and Jerry Eubanks were icing on the cake.

That first album with "Hillbilly Band" "Can't You See" "Losing You" and "Take The Highway" on it is still one of my favorites.

"I told you once, I told you twice,
I ain't gone tell you no more.
You don't do nothing that I tell you,
Maybe it's time for me to go."

I love it when "more" is considered to be a rhyme for "go". Long live Dixie!<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Rick McDuffie on 10 October 2005 at 07:46 PM.]</p></FONT>

Some other MTB tunes with steel are "Low Down Ways", and "See You Later, I'm Gone".

Scroll down for a nice pic of a young Toy playing steel:
http://www.marshalltucker.com/cgi-bin/tuck/MTCD128

Another:
http://www.marshalltucker.com/cgi-bin/tuck/pic_pages/pic3.html <font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Pete Burak on 11 October 2005 at 11:08 AM.]</p></FONT>

I think all those boys grew up in Spartanburg, and I know that Toy, Tommy and Doug Gray went to high school together (Dorman HS, I think). Some of the other guys may have gone to school with them, too. It's neato when guys grow up together and then go on to that kind of success.

The Skynard story is very similar. I believe that Alan Collins, Ronnie VZ and Gary Rossington (and possibly others) had known each other since childhood.

Alas, the stories of both of those great bands are tinged with sadness, too.

I recently bought the MTB "Anthology" double album, and on the 2nd CD there is live concert footage of Toy playing steel on "Fire on the Mountain". Great stuff, highly recommended!

If you want to play some really fun stuff and get the crowd on their feet (hootin' and hollerin'), play "This Ol' Cowboy, 24 hours, Fire on the Mountain, Searchin' for a Rainbow, Ramblin'", etc. I remember the early stuff around the same time Willie & Waylon were cookin'. Half the folks were at the Discos and the better half were wearing cowboy hats, boots and kickin' up their heels. I was in my late teens; this "movement" lasted several good years. For some of us, it's still lingers. GREAT STUFF! Everybody I remember referred to it as Cowboy Music. I guess the album cover for Searchin' for a Rainbow summed it all up.

You bring up an interesting point, Tim. "Southern Rock" is a term that came along later. In '74 and '75, I don't remember anybody using that term. All of those bands were mainstream rock and roll bands. I clearly remember seeing Marshall Tucker on The Midnight Special or Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, along with T. Rex, Yes, The Eagles, or whoever. They didn't get pigeonholed as "Southern Rock" until later in the decade- this due to the media's annoying habit of wanting to categorize and label everything/body.

The first time I ever saw the Charlie Daniels Band perform, Billy Cox (of Hendrix's Band of Gypsys) was on bass. Charlie was wearing a red jumpsuit and no hat. They played pure blues and rock and roll.

Back in the 1970's we started using Marshall Tucker's "See You Later, I'm Gone" as our closing song. Thirty years later, we still use it as our closing song. It was one of the first songs I learned on the pedal steel.

Lee, from South Texas

Rick, you are so right. I think this categorization of music has squelched a lot of good creativity over the years. I remember when we use to just write songs and play songs. This genre-sensitive mentality is for the birds.

In fact, it wasn't all that long ago that you never heard the word genre.

Our set list from 1972 would have been something like Roundabout by Yes, Rockin' Pneumonia by Johnny Rivers, 13 Questions by Seatrain, Horse With No Name by America, 25 or 6 to 4 by CTA, Down on the Corner by CCR, Cross Eyed Mary by Jethro Tull, Hot Rod Lincoln as done by Commander Cody, 21st Century Schizoid Man by King Crimson, Cinnamon Girl--Neil Young, Folsom Prison Blues--J. Cash, Don't Let Your Deal Go Down--Burritos, Lyin Eyes-Eagles...

Hows that for diversity? Any no one ever accused us of an identity crisis. Back then there simply was so much diversity in music because the labels demanded creativity and originality in order to get signed. Today it's all the same.

Being born in Spartanburg, S.C., I can remember my mother complaining about a bunch of musicians behind her keeping her awake at night with their loud music. It sure was the Calwell brothers putting together their now famous band. Yes, Rick is right, Marshall Tucker was a blind piano tuner whos name they still have. Can't remember the Calwell brother that was killed in an auto accident many years ago but I think he was replaced by a good friend they went to high school with.
C.B.

My favorite they did was "Fire on the Mountain". Love that kick off!
Course, we changed it up a bit for a buddy of mine, in honor of some of his past activities and side money ventures---"Fire in my manifolds, lightening in my (spark)plugs, gold in them hills and we haul it out in jugs!"

C.B., that was Tommy that got killed. He was the bassist, and was replaced by Franklin Wilkie, a real good bass playerfrom a red hot local band called Garfeel Ruff. THAT band went unsigned, but they were killer---had two brothers, Ricky and Ronnie Godfrey, played guitar and keys, respectively. Ronnie toured with Tucker, and Ricky has done a TON of guitar work, around here and in Nashville.

Toy did some nice steel work on "Bob Away My Blues" also.
He played E9 and C6 both, live and in the studio.

I always dug Toy Caldwell's playing, both guitar and steel. I believe he played guitar without any picks, using his thumb a lot. I am not sure if he used picks on steel. I remember seeing TMB around 1975 at an outdoor festival in North Carolina. I thought he was playing a Sho-Bud Professional ( it looked a lot like the one I had, and still have ) but from reading other posts about him, it seems that it was a Marlin. I always felt there was a lot of passion in Toy Caldwell's playing. As far as tunes go, "Bob Away My Blues" is also one of my favorites for steel. Its cool to hear the comments about Toy from some of you guys that new him, thanks for sharing those stories with us. Thats one of the things that I love about the Forum. <font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Bob Watson on 22 October 2005 at 08:53 PM.]</p></FONT><font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Bob Watson on 22 October 2005 at 09:14 PM.]</p></FONT>

Joe wright did some recording with Marshall Tucker band

Here's Toy on his woodneck D10 push-pull Emmons:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C4a40FjB_sM

Man talk about memories.

I went to high school with Ricky Godfrey. I used to hang around with Ricky and we would play guitar after school together. Ricky was just learning to play guitar switching over from keyboards.

I hung out with Ricky, Ronnie, Frank, Buddy, and Al whenever I could. Ricky and the boys were kind enough to introduce me to Tommy but I never met Toy except in passing here and there.

I didn't even now what a steel guitar was then but I sure liked to hear Toy play that thing.

I went to a lot of the MTB concerts all around the GVL/SPG area. By the way I used to love hanging out at the Beacon in Spartanburg too. Best greasy Chili Cheeseburger in the world.

Interesting picture of a very young Toy Caldwell at 2:24:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drM2NnaDNiE

The last few years a steeler named Tom Hampton has been playing for them.