Confessions of a Carolina King

He looks like a Southern rocker, a big ol’ grizzly bear standing on his hind legs roaring. But there’s a lot more to Marcus King. Underneath that furry exterior beats the heart of a soul man with the blues who can rock your ass off.

Although the South Carolina native is only 22, he’s been a guitar-slinger most of his life, mentored by Warren Haynes and fellow child guitar prodigy Derek Trucks. Haynes signed King to his label when King was 19, released Soul Insight in 2015, and produced King’s band’s eponymous 2016 release.

But the release of King’s latest, Confessions – boosted by a muscular performance of “Where I’m Headed,” the opening cut from the album, on Conan – really broke him out as a unique singer/guitarist/composer hard to nail down into any one slot. King belts out soul blooze by the bucketload, like Gregg Allman with his throat caught in a bear trap. In between soulful howls, he finds room to tear off meaty chunks of wiggly pyrotechnic guitar like Duane Allman and Joe Satriani as conjoined twins.

King mellows out a bit on “Goodbye Carolina,” his vocals reminiscent of Marc Broussard’s husky soul timbre.

“Welcome Round Here” drops down into shitkicker territory, the intro sounding like Waylon’s gonna bust out into some serious outlawin’ any second. But the outlawing here is familial, the older generation not wanting to accept the views and opinions of the younger one: “Boy you ain’t welcome ’round these parts no more / Heard the things you sing about in your songs / Well you talk about treason, you talk about lust / Keep your heathen ways away from us / Let me live my life Way that I was raised / Boy I recommend you do the same.”

It’s a crossover, line-straddling effort that defies pigeonholing; a unique, long overdue addition to the same old.

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