It was an amazing experience to watch the Marshall Tucker Band live in concert on their “All Our Friends Tour 2025” at Harrah’s Resort Casino Southern California, with VIP seats in the 2nd row, in the middle section, only a few feet from the stage! The sold-out audience really enjoyed the concert, and most of the fans knew the words to the band’s hit songs, that included when the entire audience joined in for “Can’t You See.” 
My friend Ken Ronning drove all the way down from Modesto, California, to join me in the San Diego North area at Harrah’s SoCal – where I had a deluxe hotel room for the 4 days, and since I was given 2 VIP comp tickets to this concert with a great seat location right in front of the stage, since I am a “Diamond Elite” card member in the Caesars Entertainment Rewards program. I wanted to thank Ken for many of the great close-up still photos from the concert, and from all 4 days that we stayed at Harrah’s.
Ken drove all the way down to see this band again after 52 years, since he knew how great they were after seeing them perform in a New Year’s Eve Concert in 1973! Ken’s thoughts on this concert: “52 years ago, December 31, 1973 the Marshall Tucker Band, along with the Charlie Daniels Band, were opening acts for The Allman Brothers at Bill Graham’s New Year’s Eve show at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California.”
There were 3 legendary guest singers/performers who performed at this once in a lifetime concert like: Grammy-winning, chart-topping: William Royce “Boz” Scaggs who is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter who blends genres like Americana, country, jazz, rhythm and blues, and blue-eyed soul. He became well-known for his 1970s albums, including Silk Degrees (1976), which featured the hits “Lido Shuffle” and the Grammy-winning “Lowdown”.
The 2nd guest performer was John “Jerry” Garcia who was an American singer, guitarist, and cultural icon. He co-founded the Grateful Dead in the San Francisco Bay Area, in Palo Alto, California, in 1965 and played lead guitar for the band until his death in 1995. He was a central figure in the 1960s counterculture movement and psychedelic music. His music was known for the eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, folk, country, bluegrass, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, and world music with psychedelia. Jerry’s band is famous for improvisation during their live performances, and for their devoted fan base, known as “Deadheads”. For the range of their influences and the structure of their live performances, the Grateful Dead are considered “the pioneering godfathers of the jam band world”. Jerry’s improvisational skills and songwriting were celebrated. Jerry Garcia was known for his gentle stage presence and extended, jazz-influenced guitar solos.
In our TV show’s early years in 1994, we were lucky enough to see Jerry Garcia perform (only 1 year before he died in 1995) at a star-studded Grateful Dead tribute party and concert, thanks to a good friend of ours who invited us: the PR director for this special event: Pam Sharp, the owner of Sharp and Associates. I still have the four 100% Silk Grateful Dead collection designer ties that they gave out to all of the guests. Jerry Garcia himself was so kind to directly hand me and all of my news crew his First Set of Grateful Dead Neckware, with each tie having its own story behind it. Left to Right: Uncle Sam, Back Drop – where the design was taken from a backdrop on the stage at one of their concerts at Berkeley’s Greek Theater, Steal Your Face, and Dancin’ Bones. In the below photo you can see from back in 1995 the price tag on these ties were $29.95, so now after 30 years, in 2025 they would be with a lot more as a collector’s item, as they are all in perfect condition, in fact I never even wore the Back Drop tie, as you can see it is still in the plastic sleeve, with the label with it’s story on it, along with the price tag; but I would never sell these ties, as they are worth too much to me as a personal memento. However, the Grateful Dead 100% Silk Underwear that Jerry gave me, became all worn out over the years, so I threw it away, L.O.L.: 
At this concert Jerry really pumped up the crowd with great music, laughs, great food & drinks, and everyone had a fun time that they will always remember!
The 3rd guest performer at this incredible concert was Bill Kreutzmann, who is also from the Grateful Dead. William Kreutzmann Jr. was the drummer and Co-founding member of the rock band Grateful Dead. He played with the band for its entire thirty-year career, usually alongside fellow drummer Mickey Hart, and has continued to perform with former members of the Grateful Dead in various lineups, and with his own bands BK3, 7 Walkers and Billy & the Kids.
Ken goes on to say: “These guest performers were the three that joined the Allman Brothers on stage, and then for the finale, members from Charlie Daniels band, and Marshall Tucker band joined in on “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” that is a popular Christian hymn written in 1907 by Ada R. Habershon with music by Charles H. Gabriel. It doesn’t get better than that!
This was the Ultimate marathon concert that went on for 7 and a half hours! The concert started at 7pm on New Year’s Eve: December 31st, 1973, with The Marshall Tucker Band opening up the show, followed by the Charlie Daniels Band, and “then at just before midnight to countdown to the new year: Bill Graham himself came out on stage dressed in diapers to represent the baby New Year, and then to close out the concert the Allman Brothers Band came out at midnight and performed for 3 and a half hours- till 3:30 AM the next day: New Year’s Day- January 1st, 1974!” That’s 8 PM to 3:30 AM- a 7 and a half hour live concert, at the iconic Cow Palace in San Francisco, California! That is now part of music history!
Ken finished by saying: “What a year that was for Southern rock. What a pleasure it was Saturday night to hear the current touring band with original member Doug Gray as their lead singer. Up close, you could tell the band was having just as much fun as the audience was. If you get a chance to see them live, I recommend you go and check them out.” Below is a photo of the original promotional poster from that once in a lifetime New Year’s Eve 1973 Concert at the Cow Palace in San Francisco: 
The Marshall Tucker Band is touring in 2025, with dates throughout October, November, and December, including stops in Cerritos, CA; Valley Center, CA; Santa Barbara, CA; and other U.S. cities. The “All Our Friends Tour” features appearances with bands like JJ Grey & Mofro and Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
On this show you can enjoy a few musical clips from the concert, along with photos of the concert, and other benefits that we enjoyed from Harrah’s Casino, Hotel, and the restaurants at Valley View Casino & Hotel– which is only 5 minutes down the road from Harrah’s!
As a VIP Black Card member, we had an amazing complimentary gourmet dinner at the award-winning gourmet restaurant: Black & Blue at Valley View Casino & Hotel, before went down the street to Harrah’s Casino Resort Southern California for the Marshall Tucker Band All My Friends Concert at 8pm. 
In the above and below photos you can see the menus for this first class, gourmet restaurant, with some amazing meals, and desserts: 
along with a mouth watering, gigantic, and very rich German Chocolate Cake that 95% of people can NEVER FINISH!
So they have to take it to go:
In addition, since I have a “Diamond Elite” status level member card, the casinos give us a lot of VIP invites, and Comp Extras. So, over the 4 days both of these Casinos gave us some great complimentary gifts:
The Marshall Tucker Band is an American rock band from Spartanburg, South Carolina. Noted for incorporating blues, country, rock and jazz into an eclectic sound, the Marshall Tucker Band helped establish the Southern rock genre in the early 1970s. While the band had reached the height of its commercial success by the end of the decade, it has recorded and performed continuously under various line-ups for 50 years. 
They call it the Marshall Tucker band since it belonged to a blind piano tuner named Marshall Tucker from Spartanburg, who had rented the rehearsal space before them. The band decided to keep the name, believing it had a distinctive ring to it — even after they learned Marshall Tucker was a real person. This blind piano tuner said he supported the band’s use of his name and that he was “proud of them as long as they were good boys and played good music!” 
Tommy Caldwell described the Marshall Tucker Band’s music as progressive country, explaining that the band played country music structures and riffs combined with jazz improvisation upon which more complex structures were built from the country music foundation. In 1977, Billboard identified the Marshall Tucker Band as a major performers of the genre. Aside from progressive country, the band has also been categorized as Southern rock, blues rock, country rock, jazz rock, and as a “proto-jam band”. Billboard charts have categorized the band as country, blues and adult contemporary.
The band has incorporated throughout its career elements of diverse genres into its sound, most frequently blues, country and jazz. The band has also drawn from boogie, psychedelic, R&B, gospel, folk, and rock and roll. According to Allmusic’s Jeff Tamarkin, Toy Caldwell’s guitar playing style was categorized by “flashy, jazzy licks”; the band has also been noted for extensive jamming. The Marshall Tucker Band’s use of instruments like flutes and saxophones, as well as their fusion of rock instrumentation and country melodies, set them apart from other Southern rock bands. 
Remembering the early years in 2012, Doug Gray describes the band as being like ”a bowl of soup like your mom would cook. Whatever was in the refrigerator was all thrown in there, and however it tasted was what it was.” As Gray remarks, the result was so eclectic that the press didn’t really know what to make of them as they failed to fit neatly in any pigeonhole. 
Doug Gray has said that: “On stage, I tell everybody four and a half times, I’ve been married four and a half times and then I sing ‘Heard It in a Love Song (Can’t Be Wrong)’ and they get to sing it. I don’t have to sing it anymore because it’s their life. It’s part of them.”
The original line-up of the Marshall Tucker Band, formed in 1972, and there is now only one original member left: lead vocalist and founding member Doug Gray, who was born May 22, 1948. We were honored to see him perform at this 2025 concert:
The other original members have either passed away, such as Tommy Caldwell, Toy Caldwell, and George McCorkle, or left the group, like Jerry Eubanks and Paul Riddle: Doug Gray: The sole original member who continues to tour and perform with the band. Tommy Caldwell: Died in 1980 following a car accident. Toy Caldwell: Died in 1993 from a heart attack. The song “Can’t You See” was written by Toy Caldwell, the lead guitarist and main songwriter for the Southern Rock group The Marshall Tucker Band. He also sang the lead vocals on the original 1973 recording of the song from their debut album. George McCorkle: Died in 2007 from cancer. Jerry Eubanks: No longer with the band. Paul Riddle: No longer with the band.
The Marshall Tucker Band’s current members are lead vocalist Doug Gray, guitarists/vocalists Chris Hicks, and in the below photo: Rick Willis, who is a native of Spartanburg SC, home of The Marshall Tucker Band. In those days, music was almost omnipresent in the small cotton mill town. It seemed that every family had a musician or two. It was just a way of life. Rick first started learning to play at age six. He’d seen and heard most all of the eventual original members of the band in their various earlier outfits because they were all playing various clubs, dances and “sock hops” around town. It was big news in town when The New Generation, one of Doug Gray and Tommy Caldwell’s early bands, released their first 45 rpm. Rick heard the, just released, first MTB album two months before his 16th birthday. By the time he graduated in 1975, the boys were hitting the charts regularly. Over the years, he was fortunate enough to jam with all the original band members, excluding Tommy Caldwell. Rick officially joined the MTB in 2008 as guitarist and vocalist. Photo below of Rick from this concert:
The Drummer B.B. Borden:
As you can see in the below photo, The bassist/vocalist Ryan Ware: 
and as you can see in the above photo: multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/ keyboardist/saxophonist/flautist: Marcus James Henderson. In this show he played the Flute, Keyboard Organ, and Sax. 
In front of the stage, in the above and below photos we both held up the Concert Set List, that had all of the band’s hit songs: 
Some of our favorite songs that were performed on this show: Midnight Promises, Fire on the Mountain (Live), Searchin’ for a Rainbow, Can’t You See, 24 Hours at a Time, and Heard It in a Love Song.
So stay tuned and thanks for watching Entertainment & Sports Today TV and Entertainment Today on Time Warner/ Spectrum. To watch other shows go to: EntertainmentandSportsToday.com Celebrating 30 Years being Broadcast on TIME WARNER / Spectrum!
