Why Fans Love Marshall Tucker Band’s ‘Can’t You See’

Toy Caldwell of the Marshall Tucker Band passed away in 1993 at the age of 45. Now, more than three decades later, one of his bandmates, drummer Paul T. Riddle, is working hard to make sure the fallen guitarist’s legacy of work is not forgotten.

Caldwell was also the principal songwriter for the legendary Southern rock group and penned many of their best-known songs, including the signature fan favorite, “Can’t You See,” which appeared on the band’s 1973 self-titled debut, plus others like “Heard it in a Love Song” and “Take the Highway.”

The Marshall Tucker Band took their name, by chance, from a keychain they found in the warehouse where they rehearsed in their early days as a group. Little did they know that their namesake was actually a local piano tuner named Marshall Tucker, who lived in the Spartanburg, South Carolina area where they first formed.

In a 2020 interview, Tucker himself said he’d used the premises for tuning pianos and handed the keychain in when he moved out, and hadn’t known about the band using his name at first. “I was at a friend’s house and the friend told me he saw I was going to be playing tonight,” he recalled. “I said, ‘No I’m not going to be playing – I’m just sitting here with you.’” He added: “In a way, my name has been as far as Russia. My mother always told me, ‘Son, your name will go further than your face,’ and that is for sure.”

Listen to Marshall Tucker Band’s ‘Can’t You See’

The Origins of the Toy Factory and the Marshall Tucker Band

Riddle’s new band name honors the pre-Marshall Tucker Band days when he first met Caldwell, who was playing at the time in a group called the Toy Factory, alongside his brother, Tommy Caldwell and others. The budding musician had seen the Toy Factory play live, so when Tommy came to one of the shows he was playing with his own band and invited him to come play music with him and Toy, he was all in.

The drummer was the youngest member of the group, which officially adopted the moniker of the Marshall Tucker Band, before he’d even reached his 20th birthday. Toy Caldwell and rhythm guitarist George McCorkle anchored the initial lineup that also featured Tommy on bass, plus Riddle, vocalist Doug Gray and multi-instrumentalist Jerry Eubanks.

“[Toy] liked the flute texture [which became an important element of the Marshall Tucker Band’s music], because he liked Jethro Tull,” Riddle tells UCR. “Toy liked that texture with his songs. It was the first real band [that I was part of that was] going to play original music. The first song I learned to play when I was 16 years old, was ‘Can’t You See.'”

Why ‘Can’t You See’ Remains a Fan Favorite

Even though it’s been more than 50 years since Riddle recorded “Can’t You See,” which eventually became and remains, a radio staple, he still gets emotional if he’s driving in the car and hears it come across the airwaves. “I think we believe him,” he says now, considering why the song still has such a heavy impact, both personally and with fans. It illustrates an important element of Caldwell’s songwriting.

“He said they’re just honest [songs]. And I thought that was so profound,” Riddle adds. “I think that’s the key. “When you would hear Toy sing that song, he would just sing it like he was never going to take another breath and and he would play it that way. And I think that’s what touches people, is his songs.”

Life After Toy

Tommy Caldwell was killed in a tragic auto accident in 1980. The band regrouped to make another album, 1981’s Dedicated, with longtime friends Charlie Daniels and harmonica legend Norton Buffalo (Steve Miller Band) among those who helped the members pay tribute to Caldwell. Legendary producer Tom Dowd, too, stepped in and helped to oversee the sessions.

READ MORE: When the Marshall Tucker Band’s Tommy Caldwell Died

Riddle says that it was understandably, an emotional experience, making the album and honoring Caldwell, who all involved, Toy included, had acknowledged as the unspoken leader of the group.

By 1984, Toy Caldwell and Riddle left the Marshall Tucker Band. The drummer came off the road and pursued a separate career in teaching and raising a family. Toy eventually carried forward musically and formed a new group, the Toy Caldwell Band and the outfit released one album prior to his 1993 passing.

Long after Toy was gone, Riddle couldn’t forget the good times and the power of the songwriting stuck with him as well. So much so, he eventually decided to revisit the guitarist’s songs. The Toy Factory Project was born and made its live concert debut last year with an appearance at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

Watch Toy Factory Project Perform ‘Take the Highway’

Meet the Toy Factory Project

The band features a powerhouse lineup of Riddle on drums, guitarist and vocalist Marcus King, Blackberry Smoke’s Charlie Starr on additional guitars and vocals, bassist and vocalist Oteil Burbridge (the Allman Brothers Band, Dead & Company) and Mountain Heart keyboardist Josh Shilling.. Fiddler/violinist Billy Contreras (Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder) and percussionist Jimmy Rector also perform with the group for its live shows.

The Telluride performance demonstrates that this fledgling group is a potent combination collectively. King and Starr in particular are perfectly matched, both vocally and as guitarists.

It is evident the work that’s gone into developing this project as a whole. On that day in Telluride, the thought, care and time spent getting ready for the show was impossible to miss and there was an infectious energy on stage.

Riddle, working with Shilling, who played a major part in developing the arrangements for the songs they are playing, had an interesting idea for the approach he wanted to take.

When it came to reworking the classic Marshall Tucker Band material, which also touches on some material that Caldwell didn’t write, like “Fire on the Mountain,” Riddle envisioned that they would take out the flute and saxophone parts from the original recordings and replace them with violin and Hammond B-3 organ.

“We’re not a tribute band. We are honoring these songs, not copying them,” he explains. “If I’d used a flute player, it would have been….just too much. It had been too much of a signature [part of the original music]. I just love [how songs like] ‘Can’t You See’ sound now with fiddle. It makes it different — and I always knew I wanted to use B-3, period.”

Does Toy Factory Project Have Any Music Recorded?

Yes, in fact. There’s an album that’s been done for a good while now, recorded at Peter Frampton’s studio in Nashville. The record features guest spots from Frampton and others, including Derek Trucks (Tedeschi Trucks Band, the Allman Brothers Band) and Vince Gill.

All of this has been a long time coming. It’s something very personal that Riddle has been working on for close to 15 years. Vince Gill, he tells us, was one of the earliest supporters of the project. “He has always been in our corner and been in my corner this whole time,” he says. “[Vince] played a little rhythm on the record and sang backgrounds on ‘This Old Cowboy’ and sang the last verse of ‘Heard it In a Love Song,” which is really, really special.”

Warren Haynes and Chuck Leavell are other names who were involved early on and understandably, trying to coordinate schedules with everyone involved proved to be a challenge. Progress and forward momentum eventually stalled. While Riddle kept the faith that someday, it would all come together, it was his wife who helped to finally kick things into gear.

She issued an ultimatum and told him that he needed to make phone calls and get things going again, or he’d have to stop talking about it. With the support of Gill, who’d never left his “corner,” and also, Burbridge, who’d been attached to it since those early days as well, the pieces finally began to fall into place.

As the lineup with King, Starr and the others solidified, they eventually arrived at the point where they recorded the album, which was overseen by producer Chuck Ainlay (Mark Knopfler, Dire Straits, Peter Frampton, Willie Nelson). Completed about four years ago, the drummer says the album will hopefully be out later this year or early in the next.

He’s still thrilled by the experience of revisiting the material and tells UCR that they recorded all of the songs in less than two weeks, with many of the initial performances captured live off the floor in a single take.

How to See Toy Factory Project Live

Last summer’s performance at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival was their official live debut. Playing in front of thousands, Riddle and the Toy Factory Project turned out an energetic set that fans are still talking about. They were joined by guests Bela Fleck and Sam Bush for several numbers and found that their allotted 90 minutes of stage time flew by.

They’ll return to the stage this week with two performances at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y. starting tonight (Feb. 26). Additional concerts will follow in May including an appearance at the annual DelFest in Cumberland, MO.

The Capitol concerts, which you can watch live via Nugs, will feature the group playing two sets that Riddle says will clock in around an hour and 20 minutes each. He’s excited about the gigs, because he says they will have the chance to play even more songs, including several that they had to cut from their Telluride perfomance last year due to timing.

“I think people deserve to hear [these] songs, played like that with the love that’s in it,” he says. “We’ve got a motto. It’s all about the love of the music and the love of the road. Oteil said, ‘You know what we have that no one else has? We have complete joy. And I said, ‘Man, you’re right, that’s it.'”

Listen to Paul T. Riddle on the ‘UCR Podcast’

Watch Toy Factory Project Perform ‘Can’t You See’