New Southern Rock Supergroup ‘Toy Factory Project’ Slays at DelFest

Editor’s Note: This story and photos are a contribution from writer and photographer Kevin Smith.

This year’s DelFest kicked off on Thursday May 21st in scenic Cumberland Maryland at the Allegheny County Fairgrounds. The annual music festival now in it’s 18th year is a premium destination event for fans of traditional and progressive bluegrass. Yet from its inception, founder Del McCoury has always made sure that the festival also features a wide variety of genres while embodying a distinct sense of collaboration and camaraderie among the musicians.

This year’s line-up is an absolute stunner, and it started off not with a bang, but an absolute roar as headliner Toy Factory Project brought a party of epic proportions to a very rainy evening that had fans excitedly dancing and singing along.

As Saving Country Music reported last year, Toy Factory Project is a Southern rock supergroup featuring Charlie Starr from Blackberry Smoke, Oteil Burbridge from The Allman Brothers Band, guitarist and singer extraordinaire Marcus King, drummer founding member of The Marshall Tucker Band Paul T. Riddle, Josh Shilling on keys, and Jimmy Rector on percussion. As a band they are a tribute act focusing on the songs of founding member and guitarist for The Marshall Tucker Band, the late and legendary Toy Caldwell.

Toy Factory Project first made headlines when they performed at the 2025 Telluride Bluegrass Festival where they received high praise from music fans and media outlets including Saving Country Music. Currently the band is completing a limited tour that began in February in New York and concluded with the DelFest performance on Thursday.

The DelFest appearance had the benefit of some added star power on the stage with the addition of Grammy-winning bluegrass legend Sam Bush sitting in on fiddle and mandolin. Bush is playing with the band for the month of May. Without a doubt, he made quite splash on the stage harnessing his virtuosic fiddle playing while keeping true to the spirit of the Marshall Tucker Band’s impressive catalog of songs, which often included the great Charlie Daniels on fiddle on most of their studio recordings.

While Bush has his own style, he nonetheless paid tribute to Daniels by replicating many of his impressive licks on Marshall Tucker Band staple songs “24 Hours At A Time,” “This Ol’ Cowboy,” and “Blue Ridge Mountain Sky.” You could feel the energy from the crowd who were absolutely elated to see Bush onstage alongside so many Southern Rock luminaries.

Charlie Starr, who plays guitar and shares lead vocal duties with Marcus King is something of a southern rock preservationist, and it was particularly enthralling to watch him and King trade leads on their Sunburst Les Paul guitars on classic songs like “Where A Country Boy Belongs” and “Hillbilly Band” where Starr got to demonstrate the “chicken pickin” style made famous by Caldwell. The crowd absolutely lost their minds as the two played blazing licks back and forth essentially putting on a master class in southern rock guitar soloing.

Marcus King has come into his own in the last few years, playing large venues as the heir apparent to the blues-rock empire, while mixing in country and soul influences as well. Along the way he’s enamored fans with his incredibly rich, soulful voice and high energy performance ability. King himself has noted numerous times how much he is a fan of The Marshall Tucker Band, and they figure prominently among his influences.

To understand the music of The Marshall Tucker Band, you must acknowledge that though they made their mark playing rock and roll, they came naturally with lots of country influences. Toy Caldwell himself was a proficient pedal steel player.

Impressively, Marcus King also plays pedal steel and on this night he played his heart out on the instrument, bringing back familiar sounds on the classic “ Fire on The Mountain” as well as the gorgeous tune “In My Own Way,” sung ably by Starr while King sat hunched over the pedal steel with his 70s styled cowboy hat and a lit cigarette dangling from his lip, deeply concentrating on milking every glorious note from the vintage instrument.

King was quite a character in that moment, and it recalled the smoky honky tonks of the 1970s where the Tucker Band boys no doubt paid dues on their way to the big time. But perhaps Marcus King’s finest moment onstage came with the bedrock Toy Caldwell classic “Take The Highway” where he delivered the vocal so passionately and with such conviction.

The guitar playing of Marcus King and Charlie Starr was equally passionate and simultaneously rocking to the point of exhilaration as the two delivered the familiar licks to “Take The Highway,” which was perhaps Toy Caldwell’s “Freebird” in a sense that it was always the monstrous jam that elated fans and energized live performances. Clearly its resonating still today as I saw many young people in the crowd who appeared to be awed by it.

It is also worth noting that the other members of this band also played lights out. Oteil Burbridge, played his gorgeous 6-string bass with absolute mastery and artistry, playing octave chords and melodies high up on the fretboard in the upper register. He was in a word, sublime. He is after all a beloved former member of The Allman Brothers Band—a band that prized not only musical virtuosity, but a strong sense of melody and rhythm that was the envy of every musician who ever saw them.

Then there was Josh Shilling of the band Mountain Heart who played Hammond Organ and piano. His boisterous and muscular playing really took these performances to the highest levels musically speaking and his energy was infectious and no doubt contributed to the amount of people dancing.

But the man perhaps most deserving of attention was none other than Paul T. Riddle, original founding drummer for The Marshall Tucker Band, who has long had a vision to create a band with this generation’s best pickers and pay tribute to his old friend Toy Caldwell. Riddle was in fine form this night, pounding the skins with ease and possessing an energy of a man decades younger. The crowd showed him much love and appreciation by cheering as he stood up.

At one point, Riddle stepped out from behind the drum kit to sit centerstage along with the other band members and play an acoustic version of the classic ’70s Marshall Tucker Band hit “Heard It In A Love Song,” which quickly became a sing-along among the excited crowd who held on to every note.

As the night bore to a close, a special surprise awaited. Charlie Starr invited Del McCoury and sons Rob and Ronnie out to perform a couple of closing songs. The elder statesman of bluegrass emerged from the shadows of the stage grinning as he brought his world class high mountain tenor to the classic “Sittin’on Top Of The World” while sons Ronnie and Rob picked on banjo and mandolin.

But what really brought the house down was the closer, an obvious choice, “Can’t You See” from the band’s first album, a song that has been covered by everyone from Waylon to Hank Jr. to Charlie Daniels, and nearly all points in between. The song was one the crowd had patiently been awaiting, and they were rewarded with a finale that was well worth enduring the rain and cold temperatures.

As Ronnie McCoury strummed his mandolin and Rob McCoury picked the melody on banjo, they all gathered around Marcus King as he wielded the Les Paul once more to deliver a truly sweet and inspired solo that left everyone excited and wanting more. It was an absolute perfect ending to an unforgettable set on opening night of DelFest 2026. The set was one for the ages as they say, and it amply demonstrated that bluegrass, country and Southern rock really aren’t that far apart musically, and in the end are all worth celebrating and enjoying.