Talented young guitarist/vocalist Marcus King has announced the coming release of his debut solo album, El Dorado, due out on January 17th, 2020 via Fantasy Records. You can pre-save the album on the platform of your choice here.
The new album, produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, was recorded at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville, TN with some of the best writers and studio musicians the Music City has to offer.
Along with the album’s announcement, King has shared the first single off the album. The excellent new track, “The Well”, showcases Marcus’ ever-maturing guitar playing with some added rock and roll grit courtesy of Auerbach’s Keys-reminiscent production.
As King notes of the new track in a statement, “‘The Well’ for me symbolizes the source of all my influences. It is everything that has happened to me to make me the man I am today.” Listen to Marcus King’s “The Well” below:
Marcus King – “The Well” [Visualizer Video]
[Video: The Marcus King Band]
Marcus King previously spoke about the then-unannounced new project earlier this summer on Andy Frasco’s World Saving Podcast. “This is not a Marcus King Band album,” the guitarist explained. “And it doesn’t sound like a Marcus King Band record either. … This was a different thing. … We just wanted to make a classic Americana record. Dan had this idea and we wanted to follow through with it. I think in the long run it’s going to be beneficial to me and all the guys … We all do things separate from this [The Marcus King Band] and that’s all it was, just a separate venture, and it sounds different than anything we would do, ya know? I’m very proud of it. There’s a lot of soulful tunes on this record.”
King also revealed that the new album features drummer Gene Chrisman (Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack), bassist Dave Roe (Jerry Reed), keyboardist Bobby Woods (the Memphis Boys, Elvis Presley), and guitarist Billy Sanford, whose work includes the lead riff on Roy Orbison‘s “Pretty Woman”.
Prior to recording El Dorado, Auerbach had worked with King to co-write “How Long”, a track on The Marcus King Band’s Goodbye Carolina. Beyond their musical collaborations, Auerbach also served as a life mentor when King moved to Nashville late last year, giving him some advice that would go on to influence not just the car he drives, but the title of the new album.
As King told Live For Live Music in a 2018 interview,
“One thing I found out about myself recently was that I wanted a car that had some style and I think that may have stemmed from the last time I hung out with my good friend Dan Auerbach. Dan has this old truck parked in his yard and a late ’90s black Cadillac, so told him I was thinking about buying an old truck. Dan said, ‘Bro, I keep that old truck back here just to deter my friends from buying old trucks. It’s a lawn ornament, man. Don’t do it, you’ll have to work on it all the time.’ Auerbach said, ‘Get you a Cadillac, man, you’ll never go over the speed limit in a Cadillac because you’ll be way too cozy.’”
“Those words really stuck with me,” says King. “So I started looking for the right Cadillac for me, and what I came up with was this 1980 El Dorado with a tire on the back. That’s my new whip, I just have to name it.”
In keeping with the “El Dorado” theme, The Marcus King Band recently announced a 32-date El Dorado Tour set to run from October 31st through the end of 2019. For a full list of Marcus King’s upcoming tour dates, head here.