TOY CALDWELL
    Tribute

    Tower Theater, 1983

    Photos and text by Jim Kane
    The Tower Theater gig is one that I will remember forever!!! Before the show started , my brother Tom, me and some of the boys in my band - a Marshall Tucker copy band -went to the nearest hotel to see if the MTB bus was in the parking lot, which it was. We then went in to look for them.


    Toy Caldwell in fine form


    The Marshall Tucker Band's Gray & Caldwell in Philadelphia, 1983.

    We started checking each floor one by one listening for some noise. The elevator door opened up and there was Toy standing there holding onto piano player Ronnie Godfrey who is blind. Toy said to us as we were standing there in shock, "don't just stand there, get in." So we did and the rest of the night was history.

    Toy told us to stop back at the Holiday Inn bar after the show, which we did. A girl i knew caught a tambourine which Doug threw into the crowd, she ended up giving it to me because she knew how much� I liked MTB. The show was excellent as usual.


    Doug & Toy on stage

    We went back to the bar after the show and most of the guys in MTB were there. Toy seemed to be in a great mood that night. I bought him a couple of vodka and oj's. We told him that we brought guitars with us and asked him if he would be interested in jamming that night and he said, "sure, come on up to my room!"


    Toy in the hotel room


    Jim Kane with Toy

    We played music with Toy for a couple of hours, what a great time. The lead guitar player in my band, Frank Hutchinson knew just about every song Toy ever wrote. As he played more and more of Toy's songs that night, Toy finally said "dam, this boy's 'dusty disc'! He knows more of my songs than I do." I was a bass player, but that night I was playing Tommy's bass lines on a six string guitar, doing "Searchin' For A Rainbow" and "Fire On The Mountain." Finally Toy yelled out "he's a bass player, he's a bass player," which made me feel pretty good that he knew what I was doing.

    Toy played one song for us that I never heard before, and it was as funny as hell!!! I even taped the whole jam that we had with Toy that night. It is not a very good recording since the person sitting next to the recorder had my MTB tambourine and shook it the whole time. Too dam close to the recorder!!!�

    Toy did not want to leave, but the band manager kept coming in and telling him that the bus was ready to go.it seemed like he had a really good time. He just kept saying "I got one more song I wanna play for you," and just kept playing.

    That night Toy asked if he could have some of the pictures that I showed him, so I gave him the whole pack, then made more with the negatives.it was the pictures with� no flash ,dark backgrounds and the great color from the stage lights, they are my favorites!! I think that the last song that he played for us that night was "Night Life" which was on his last album.