Toy Factory Project Takes On “Blue Ridge Mountain Sky” With Oteil Burbridge Bringing Joy

I hesitated for a minute before sharing another Oteil Burbridge video. We have featured him quite a bit lately, including our recent No Treble Exclusive interview. Then I hit play on this one and that hesitation disappeared pretty quickly.

Toy Factory Project shared this performance of “Blue Ridge Mountain Sky,” filmed at Music at Maymont in Richmond, Virginia. The newly released video, supplied by Nugs.net, looks and sounds fantastic but the performance is even better.

This band is an absolute joy.

Oteil is playing his Asher six string here and he shines throughout. There is something about the way he locks in with original Marshall Tucker Band drummer Paul T. Riddle that makes the whole thing feel joyous. He brings the light. He lives in the light. You can see it and hear it in every phrase.

The rest of this lineup is just ridiculous with Marcus King, Charlie Starr, Josh Shilling, Jimmy Rector, and Sam Bush joining Riddle and Burbridge. Bush is a perfect fit for “Blue Ridge Mountain Sky,” too. Charlie Daniels played fiddle on the Marshall Tucker Band’s original recording, written and sung by Toy Caldwell for the 1974 album A New Life.

Riddle created Toy Factory Project to celebrate Caldwell’s music and this group seems to be having as much fun playing these songs as we are watching them.

They are not done yet, either. Toy Factory Project just announced a New Year’s Eve show at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre on December 31st, with tickets going on sale August 28th.