Marcus King Band has released its highly anticipated new album, Darling Blue—the group’s first studio album together since 2018’s Carolina Confessions. Produced by Eddie Spear (Zach Bryan, Sierra Ferrell), the LP blends country, folk, psychedelic rock, and soulful R&B, marking a return to King’s roots after a series of more mainstream solo albums produced by Dan Auerbach and Rick Rubin.
Darling Blue was heavily inspired by the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains, which stretch across the Southeast, including King’s home state of South Carolina. The album conveys King’s emotional depth and musical breadth, touching on personal themes like addiction and depression in an eclectic yet cohesive 14 tracks. The collection includes contributions from Billy Strings, Jesse Welles, Noah Cyrus, Jamey Johnson, and Kaitlin Butts and features standout single “Honky Tonk Hell”, the fastest single of King’s career to hit one million streams.
Marcus King Band – “Honky Tonk Hell” Live At Bonnaroo
“It truly felt like home. Like my band and I were just working out songs to perform live but ended up creating a piece of recorded music for our fans to hear,” King explained. “Our goal is always to be a vessel and allow the music to flow through us and tap into something that’s already there in the room. But more than anything I’ve done before, this album felt like a real concerted effort to make music for myself, and for ourselves as a band—creating for the love of creating and being as honest as we possibly can. We put everything we had into making something that we love and we have faith that the audience will feel that and love it, too.”
Along with the album release, King shared a new official lyric video for “The Shadows” featuring Noah Cyrus.
“I wrote ‘The Shadows’ with [Nick Monson & Madi Yanofsky] featuring a devastatingly sweet, sweeping melody from Paul Franklin & Billy Contrares,” said King. “We really wanted to have the second verse belong to someone we thought embodied the essence of this song. Noah Cyrus immediately came to mind and when she agreed to be on the track, I knew it was meant to be. Noah’s voice brought the song to a level I didn’t realize it could reach. Truly an inspiration to share a song together.”
Marcus King Band – “The Shadow” Featuring Noah Cyrus
Darling Blue is out now via American Recordings/Republic Records. Listen to the album below or on your preferred streaming platform.
Marcus King Band – Darling Blue
Marcus King Band recently hosted the 4th edition of the Marcus King Band Family Reunion in Charleston, SC, with performances by Jamey Johnson, Stephen Wilson Jr., Molly Tuttle, Hiss Golden Messenger, and more. The band is currently on tour with Eric Church and will embark on The Darling Blue Tour (Pt. 1) in October. They also have upcoming shows with Chris Stapleton, Cody Johnson, and Dwight Yoakam and will make their Austin City Limits debut during the program’s 51st season with a taping set for November 4th. Click below for a full list of upcoming tour dates and head here for tickets.