Marcus King will continue to define his own legacy with his sophomore solo album, Young Blood. Out on August 27th via Rick Rubin‘s American Records/Republic Records, the 11-track offering once again hears the former child guitar prodigy working beside producer Dan Auerbach. Along with the album announcement, King has shared the lead single, “Hard Working Man”.
Over the course of three albums with The Marcus King Band, the 26-year-old picker carved out a seat at the table in the modern Southern blues-rock tradition. Then in 2020, King broke for Nashville, TN, teaming with The Black Keys singer/guitarist/producer Dan Auerbach at his Easy Eye Studios. The result was El Dorado, a Grammy-nominated solo album displaying King’s singer-songwriter side as he settled into Music City. Now, with Young Blood, King is getting in the car and cranking up terrestrial FM rock radio for a tribute to the classics.
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“Hard Working Man” is a high-octane classic rock single that counts off with an almost-too-on-the-nose prescription of cowbell. The song hears King straddle the line between boisterous Lynyrd Skynyrd guitar riffs and Bruce Springsteen lyrical tributes to all the working folk out there.
“We tour almost 200 days of the year, and even when I’m home, I’m doing something,” King said. “Working hard is just the way I was raised. It would make my grandfather proud to know I’m a hard working man and I’ve worked for everything I have. It’s an anthem for the people. You’ve got folks who work all week and spend their hard-earned money just to come see us. They’re the backbone of America. It’s a real blessing.”
The album indulges in the rock n’ roll excesses of the 60s and 70s fit for a VH1 Behind The Music. “Up late, all night / I don’t even need a reason why,” King says to open “Hard Working Man”. The hard-living overindulgences of which he sings, however, had their flip side.
“I was going through a lot during the album with addictions, breakups, and addictions because of breakups. I was overindulging in everything.” King said. “It’s not a big secret to my friends. I was in a real rough place for a while. I was trying to process the death of family members and I was on the wrong medications.”
King came out the other side ready to explore yet another stylistic facet of his complex musical profile. Young Blood was recorded at Easy Eye in the classic power trio configuration with King on vocals and guitar, Nick Movshon on bass, and Chris St. Hilaire on drums. King and Auerbach opened up the songwriting to collaborations with Desmond Child and Angelo Petraglia, who hosts credits with everyone from Aerosmith to Kings of Leon.
“Music runs so deep in Marcus’s blood he might not even realize how born to do this he is,” Auerbach said. “He’s the real deal. Marcus has Southern Soul as part of his foundation. If you’re going to play rock ‘n’ roll with Marcus, you have to understand that element. It’s just who he is. These songs are live performances. The whole damn thing is live—the solos and everything. It’s so rare in this day and age.”
Check out the new Marcus King single “Hard Working Man” and click here to pre-order Young Blood. King will embark on a world tour beginning on April 27th in San Diego, CA. For tickets visit his website and see below for a full list of tour dates, as well as the tracklist and album artwork for Young Blood.
Marcus King – “Hard Working Man”
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