Southern Rock Roundup: Marshall Tucker Band and Little River Band Team Up, Plus News From Blackberry Smoke, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Marcus King

A joint 2027 tour leads a busy week for the genre, with new dates, a winter festival, and a surprise blues jam in Nashville.

It’s a busy week for Southern rock. The Marshall Tucker Band has announced a joint tour with Little River Band, Blackberry Smoke is stretching its 25th anniversary celebration into winter, Lynyrd Skynyrd has added dates on two continents, and guitarist Marcus King turned up in Nashville for an all-star blues jam. Here is what’s new.

“Rivers and Highways Tour 2027” Announced

The Marshall Tucker Band has officially teamed up with Little River Band for a joint 2027 tour. Billed as the Rivers and Highways Tour, the initial run takes place in February and brings the two groups together on stages across the Midwest.

The pairing joins a Southern rock pioneer with the Australian band behind a long run of soft-rock hits, which makes it an unusual cross-genre bill. Marshall Tucker Band frontman Doug Gray said the two groups have shared a “musical family” for decades, and the tour is a way of making that bond official on the road. For fans of 1970s radio rock, the bill puts two catalogs side by side in one night.

Blackberry Smoke Pushes Its 25th Anniversary Tour Deep Into Winter

Atlanta’s best-known modern Southern rock band, Blackberry Smoke, is rolling out the late-2026 legs of its 25th Anniversary Tour. The band has locked in theater stops through November, including dates at Georgia’s Anderson Music Hall and the Peace Center in Greenville.

In December, the band hosts its signature four-day High Tide Getaway, a destination festival in Cancún. Early 2027 extensions in Canada, alongside The Sheepdogs, have also just been finalized. That keeps a tour built around a quarter-century milestone going well into next year.

Lynyrd Skynyrd Locks In Late 2026 Dates and a 2027 European Route

Following a big summer co-headlining run with Foreigner, Lynyrd Skynyrd has expanded its touring calendar well into next year. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers have added November festival dates, including the Hondo Rodeo Fest in Phoenix.

The bigger news is a newly announced 2027 European arena tour next summer, with stops at major halls in Paris, Milan, Zurich, and Germany. It gives European fans a rare chance to see one of Southern rock’s defining bands in large rooms.

Marcus King Stages a Heavy All-Star Jam

On the contemporary roots side, guitarist Marcus King spent the week keeping classic blues-rock alive in Nashville. He stopped by Carter Vintage Guitars today for a live performance of B.B. King’s “Sweet Little Angel,” trading extended guitar solos with Eric Krasno and bassist Eric Vogel.

The jam comes as his band wraps up the extended fall legs of its Darling Blue North American tour, which added dozens of cities earlier this year.