George McCorkle (October 11, 1946 – June 29, 2007) was a founding member and guitarist for

the Marshall Tucker Band The Marshall Tucker Band is an American rock band from Spartanburg, South Carolina. Noted for incorporating blues, country, and jazz into an eclectic sound, the Marshall Tucker Band helped establish the Southern rock genre in the early 1970s. W ...

. He wrote " Fire on the Mountain", the band's first top 40 hit, though had hoped that

Charlie Daniels Charles Edward Daniels (October 28, 1936 – July 6, 2020) was an American singer, musician, and songwriter. His music fused rock, country, blues and jazz, pioneering Southern rock. He was best known for his number-one country hit "The De ...

would record the song. He left the band in 1984 and later worked as a songwriter. He released a solo album, ''American Street'', in 1999. McCorkle was diagnosed with cancer in early June 2007 and died soon afterward, in Lebanon, Tennessee.

Early career

George McCorkle pursued music as a career after having been drafted into the Navy and serving from 1967 to 1968. Initially he had taught himself to play his older brother's guitar as a young teenager, mimicking the blues stylings of B.B. King and other artists he heard on the radio. At the age of sixteen he purchased his own

Gretsch Gretsch is an American company that manufactures musical instruments. The company was founded in 1883 in Brooklyn, New York by Friedrich Gretsch, a 27-year-old German immigrant, shortly after his arrival to the United States. Friedrich Gretsch ...

guitar. His first stage performances were with local high school bands in Spartanburg, South Carolina. After his military discharge he formed a band, The Toy Factory, with his longtime childhood friend,

Toy Caldwell Toy Talmadge Caldwell Jr. (November 13, 1947 – February 25, 1993) was the lead guitarist and main songwriter of the 1970s Southern Rock group The Marshall Tucker Band.

. George also performed with another group, Pax Parachute, but his musical talents flourished working with Toy. "Playing guitar with Toy Caldwell wasn't just playing guitar, it was sharing a mind. With me at his side he had the freedom to do whatever came into his mind and I could instinctively interpret whatever that was and experiment with him. And Toy had a heart of gold."

References

External links

*
George McCorkle entry in Dave's Diary

George McCorkle entry at Pure Southern Rock

Obituary on legacy.com

American rock guitarists American male guitarists Guitarists from South Carolina American Southern Rock musicians United States Navy sailors 2007 deaths Deaths from cancer in Tennessee Rhythm guitarists 1947 births Capricorn Records artists 20th-century American guitarists The Marshall Tucker Band members 20th-century American male musicians {{US-rock-guitarist-stub