Grand Funk Railroad, Marshall Tucker Band, et BlackHawk

The band formed in 1969 as a trio consisting of guitarist/vocalist Mark Farner, drummer Don Brewer, and bassist Mel Schacher. The band was strongly influenced by the hard rock trio Cream, and based much of their style on them. Grand Funk Railroad started to gain mainstream attention when they played the Atlanta Pop Festival in 1969. Due to the success of their performance at the festival they were asked to return in 1970. The band released their debut album “On Time” in 1969. The album contained the single “Time Machine” and went on to reach gold status.

In 1970 the band released their second studio album “Grand Funk” – aka “The Red Album”. Although the album experienced a lack of airplay and critical acclaim, the album sold quite well. Singles from the album include a cover of The Animals’ “Inside Looking Out”, “Got This Thing On the Move”, and “In Need”. The year 1970 also showed the band releasing their third album “Closer to Home”, which had the single “I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home)”. The song is the band’s longest recorded song to date and contains elements of progressive rock. In 1971 the band broke the Beatles’ record of selling out Shea Stadium in 72 hours. That same year they also released two albums: “Survival” and “E Pluribus Funk”.

Grand Funk Railroad expanded their sound by adding keyboardist Craig Frost to their lineup in 1972, which allowed the band to adopt a more R&B and pop style as opposed to their traditional hard rock sound. The band’s 1972 album “Phoenix” was the first studio album with Craig Frost and it contained the single “Rock & Roll Soul”, which reached the No. 29 position on the charts. In order to refine their sound, the band hired Todd Rundgren to produce their next two albums “We’re An American Band” and “Shinin’ On”. “We’re An American Band” was one of the band’s most successful albums to date reaching the No. 2 position on the US Billboard 200 chart. The album also contained the singles “We’re an American Band” and “Walk Like a Man”, which also did well on the charts.

After the band released their 1975 album “All the Girls in the World Beware!!!”, which contained the singles “Some Kind of Wonderful” and “Bad Time”, the members in the band were starting to experience internal problems within the band and were ready to call it quits. However the band stayed together for one more year and created two more albums: “Born to Die” and “Good Singin’, Good Playin’”. Frank Zappa produced “Good Singin’, Good Playin’” and appeared on the tracks “Out To Get You” and “Rubberneck”.

After the band broke up in 1976 Mark Farner embarked on a solo career and Brewer, Schacher, and Frost formed another band called Flint. In 1981 Farner and Brewer returned as the only original members in Grand Funk Railroad and released the album “Grand Funk Lives”. In 1983 they released another album called “What’s Funk”. In the ‘90s Grand Funk Railroad reunited for several reunion shows, but later on Mark Farner would depart from the band and Don Brewer and Mel Schacher would remain the only original members in the band. The band has played numerous sold out shows across world and continue to tour consistently, playing around 40 shows per year.

Formed in Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA, it might surprise you to learn that the original line up which came together in the late 60s/70s, did not contain a single member by the name of Marshall Tucker. Instead their slightly misleading name was accidentally borrowed from a local piano tuner and was set in stone when their album of the same name was released in 1973 and certified gold just two years later.

The band followed up their album with the start of a relentless, decade-long touring schedule which saw them playing more than 300 shows a year. They began to impress fans and fellow musicians on the road including the likes of fiddler Charlie Daniels and blues guitarist Elvin Bishop.

The band soared through the 70s, finding huge commercial success for albums like ‘Searchin’ for a Rainbow’ and ‘Carolina Dreams’ however the 80s brought hard times for the band. Their bass player and co-founder Tommy Caldwell was killed in a car accident and whilst a replacement was bought in, the band was never able to recapture the success they experienced in the 70s.

As the band moved into the twenty first century they have continued to release albums and are still a popular live act playing up to 150 and 200 shows a year. They even experienced crossover success when the band were mentioned in Nelly’s remix of the song cruise which eventually went 6 times platinum.