The Marshall Tucker Band

This album is easily the best recording the Tucker Boys have done since Toy and Tommy were with the Band. Every song is tight and the music sounds real inspired, with not a bad song in the bunch. Chris Hicks (guitarist and vocalist) is responsible for most of the songs and sings lead on a lot of the material sharing time with Doug Gray, the original band member and leader. The music is very cohesive as a band with a live feel to it. It includes the eclecticism that the early Tucker recordings had, swing, songs with a true country feel, some bluesy stuff and of course, some great southern rock. There are two Toy Caldwell songs included in the twelve song set. I am going to go out on a limb and say that this is one of the best MTB albums that I have heard. Chris Hicks is a big part of this with his guitar playing and singing and also the bass player Tony hauntingly brings up memories of Tommy Caldwell. Chris is an excellent guitarist and sometimes sounds like when he plays that Toy might be in the house. Both Tony and Chris had toured with Toy before his death in '92.

The record starts out with a Chris Hicks song "Ride Of Your Life", an incredible song with great imagery in the lyrics, both Chris and Doug sharing vocals. Hot track, great flute, guitar and bass.

"Beyond The Horizon", title track, is a great country rocker, that brings back memories of the original Tucker lineup, reminiscent of the old west songs that the band used to do like "Fire On The Mountain". Doug Gray produced this CD and it is a masterpiece of a recording. You can hear everything in the mix, great use of the stereo field, there is a riff in "Midnight Promises" that starts out in one speaker and moves right to the left speaker before it ends.

"Set You Free" is an incredible western swing song. It really cooks with some great vocals by Doug and great sax, piano and guitar. This song brings back memories of the Blues Brothers. These songs have a real live vibe to them.

This leads up to my favorite track "Midnight Promises", a Toy song. This was originally released on the Toy Caldwell Band CD in "92 and Greg Allman sang the vocals. Here, Chris Hicks gets to sing them and just plain nails the song sounding a bit like Toy. This really sounds like a Toy song. It really sounds like a Tucker song, somewhat reminiscent of "Can't You See". Tony's bass is amazing and This is easily Chris's best guitar playing on the album. His lead break takes your head away. He sustains a note for about twenty seconds. Great song with some great lyrics.