MARCUS KING GOES SOLO

THE 23-YEAR-OLD “AMERICAN MUSICIAN” TOOK SOME TIME OFF FROM THE MARCUS KING BAND TO RECORD EL DORADO WITH THE BLACK KEYS’ DAN AUERBACH. BUT FEAR NOT — HIS TELETASTER AND ES-335 WERE ASKED TO TAG ALONG

- ADAM KOVAC

MARCUS KING IS NOT A BLUESMAN. HE MIGHT PLAY SOME BLUESY RIFFS and know his way around a fuzzed-out pentatonic solo — but Marcus King is definitely not a bluesman. Just ask him. “I never called myself a blues artist,” he says in his soft Southern drawl. “Any time you see it written down, it’s another man’s words. It’s because for me I think the authentic nature of the blues, only a few people truly hold that. I’m an admirer of the craft. Someone like Eric Clapton really holds the title because he’s such a reservationist to the music and he goes through his fair share of shit as well. Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Junior Kimbrough, those are bluesmen to me, and I don’t hold a candle. The way I see it is, I’m an American musician and blues happens to be an American artform. For me, I’m encompassing all these different styles of music and just hoping somebody will listen.”

On his new album, El Dorado, the South Carolina-born King backs up his claim, dipping his toes into country, acoustic balladeering, soul and rock ‘n’ roll.

When I get King on the phone, it’s a few weeks before Christmas, but he isn’t taking any time off to set up a tree and down some eggnog. He’s been on the road for weeks, promoting the yet-to-be-released El Dorado the only way he knows how.

“We’ve been trying to hit three cities a night, or at least that’s how it feels. We’ve been running constantly and just trying to cover as much ground as we can,” he says. “The band is feeling as good as ever. No reason not to work it.”