Marcus King (born March 11, 1996) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the frontman, lead singer and guitarist for

The Marcus King Band The Marcus King Band is a southern rock/blues band from South Carolina formed in 2013. History The band is led by guitarist Marcus King. Raised in Greenville, South Carolina, King was brought up on the blues, playing shows as a pre-teen side ...

. His 2020 album ''El Dorado'' received a nomination for

Best Americana Album The Grammy Award for Best Americana Album is an honor presented to recording artists for quality albums in the Americana music genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors ...

at the

63rd Annual Grammy Awards The 63rd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held in and around the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles on March 14, 2021. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year, running from September 1, 201 ...

Early life

Marcus King was born in

Greenville, South Carolina Greenville (; locally ) is a city in and the seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 census, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. Greenville is located approximately halfway be ...

, United States. His father, Marvin King, was a well-known

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

guitarist in

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

who also played with gospel acts, and his grandfather was also a regionally popular musician. Marcus began playing guitar at a very early age, and at age eight he started playing shows with his father. At age eleven, he played guitar on one of his father's albums. King was in his teens when he began playing out with his own band, juggling club gigs at night and school in the morning as he and his bandmates brainstormed with what they called "soul-influenced psychedelic Southern rock." Deciding to pursue a career in music, King dropped out of high school in his junior year and got his

GED The General Educational Development (GED) tests are a group of four subject tests which, when passed, provide certification that the test taker has United States or Canadian high school-level academic skills. It is an alternative to the US high ...

. King took an academic approach to music, studying his favorite guitar players, particularly

The Allman Brothers Band The Allman Brothers Band was an American rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman (founder, slide guitar and lead guitar) and Gregg Allman (vocals, keyboards, songwriting), as well as Dickey Betts (lead guita ...

co-founder

Duane Allman Howard Duane Allman (November 20, 1946 – October 29, 1971) was an American rock guitarist, session musician, and the founder and original leader of the Allman Brothers Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in ...

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shi ...

Albert King Albert Nelson (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992), known by his stage name Albert King, was an American guitarist and singer who is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential blues guitarists of all time. He is perhaps b ...

Waylon Jennings Waylon Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He pioneered the Outlaw Movement in country music. Jennings started playing guitar at the age of eight and performed at age f ...

and

Merle Haggard Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler. Haggard was born in Oildale, California, toward the end of the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled af ...

. King studied jazz theory and jazz performance with Steve Watson at the Greenville Fine Arts Center. He received some notable early attention in 2014 after a video of him jamming at Norman's Guitars racked up millions of views on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. In 2019, King announced his debut solo album, ''El Dorado'', produced by

Dan Auerbach Daniel Quine Auerbach (; born May 14, 1979) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer, best known as the guitarist and vocalist of The Black Keys, a blues rock band from Akron, Ohio. As a member of the group, Auerbach has ...

The Black Keys The Black Keys are an American rock duo formed in Akron, Ohio, in 2001. The group consists of Dan Auerbach (guitar, vocals) and Patrick Carney (drums). The duo began as an independent act, recording music in basements and self-producing their ...

at his Easy Eye Studio in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

. The album is a genre-bending release that was released on January 17, 2020 by

Fantasy Records Fantasy Records is an American independent record label company founded by brothers Max and Sol Stanley Weiss in 1949. The early years of the company were dedicated to issuing recordings by jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, who was also one of its inves ...

. On release,

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

declared “El Dorado already stands out as a definite high point of 2020.” On 26 August 2022, King released his second album ''Young Blood,'' again produced by Dan Auerbach. Melinda Newman of ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' called it "a staggeringly confident work." It debuted at number one in the ''Billboard'' Top Blues Albums Chart.

Discography

Albums

*''El Dorado'' (2020) No. 142 US ''Billboard'' 200 *''Young Blood'' (2022)

Singles

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:King, Marcus 1996 births Living people American blues singers American blues guitarists American rock singers American rock guitarists American Southern Rock musicians Blues rock musicians Musicians from Greenville, South Carolina