Toy Factory Project—the all-star tribute to Toy Caldwell and the Marshall Tucker Band featuring original MTB drummer Paul T. Riddle, Marcus King, Charlie Starr, Oteil Burbridge, Josh Shilling, Billy Contreras, and Jimmy Rector—reunited for the first time since the band’s debut at Telluride Bluegrass Festival last summer, descending on The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY for back-to-back nights on Thursday and Friday.
When Toy Factory Project first took the stage at Telluride on the summer solstice in June 2025, it marked the public unveiling of a vision that Riddle had been nursing for nearly 30 years—a project born from his desire to honor the legacy of his late bandmate and MTB co-founder Toy Caldwell, who passed away in 1993.
“Oteil kept telling me God would tell me when the time was right,” Riddle told Live For Live Music in a recent interview. “And that’s exactly what happened.”
That debut performance, which drew heavily from the MTB’s classic mid-1970s catalog and featured special guests Béla Fleck and Sam Bush, left the festival crowd and the wider roots music community buzzing. For East Coast fans, the Capitol Theatre stand was their first chance to find out whether the project lived up to the hype.
Thursday night’s setlist opened with the galloping “Running Like the Wind” and moved through MTB staples like “24 Hours at a Time” and “Long Hard Ride” before arriving at a playful mashup of Marshall Tucker Band’s “Fire on the Mountain” and the Grateful Dead song of the same name—the only tune across either night not drawn from the MTB catalog. A first-set run through “Searchin’ for a Rainbow” and “A New Life” set up a second set that hit the big ones—”Can’t You See”, “Take the Highway”—while making room for deeper cuts. The band returned for an encore of “Heard It in a Love Song”.
Toy Factory Project – “Running Like The Wind”, “Fly Like An Eagle”, “24 Hours At A Time” – 2/26/26
Friday’s show drew from a slightly reshuffled deck, opening with “Hillbilly Band” before giving first-time Capitol Theatre hearings to “You Ain’t Foolin’ Me” and “Where a Country Boy Belongs” in a first set that closed with a gorgeous “Searchin’ for a Rainbow”. Set two opened with “Running Like the Wind” and built through “See You Later, I’m Gone”. MTB’s “Fire on the Mountain” appeared without its Grateful Dead counterpart, instead giving way to “Can’t You See” and “Take the Highway” to close the second set. The band returned once more to finish off the run with another “Heard It in a Love Song” encore.
Toy Factory Project – “Hillbilly Band” – 2/27/26
Oteil Burbridge took to social media on Sunday to reflect on what the weekend had felt like from the inside:
I always love playing The Capitol Theatre. But Thursday and Friday night with Toy Factory Project were just next level. And I had really high expectations. But I didn’t realize just how far it could go.
If you like to watch two guitar dragons flying overhead and torching the entire village then you bought the right ticket. If you want to hear improvs that went so far out of the solar system that I can’t even remember what song I was playing when you left you ended up in the right house. If you like grooves so deep that some part of your body will move uncontrollably then you hit a bullseye. If you love vocal harmonies that literally cause tears to well up in your eyes then you lucked up. And if you like all of that infused into the music of Toy Caldwell then Toy Factory Project is gonna be the perfect prescription for what ails you.
This songbook combined with the musical gifts of Paul Riddle, Marcus King, Charlie Starr, Josh Shilling, Billy Contreras and Jimmy Rector is just sunlight and joy. And whoever was there is probably going to agree with me.
More to come! I need a lot more sunlight in my life right now. How about you?
Those who weren’t at the Cap won’t have to wait long for another shot. Toy Factory Project has two nights lined up at Greenfield Lake Amphitheater in Wilmington, NC on May 18th and 19th, followed by an appearance at Music at Maymont in Richmond, VA—all leading up to the group’s headlining set at DelFest, the beloved bluegrass and roots summit founded by Del McCoury, running May 21st–24th at the Allegany County Fairgrounds in Cumberland, MD.
Check out video highlights along with a gallery of photos courtesy of David Gray. Scroll down to view the complete setlists. Both shows are available to stream on demand via nugs. For more information and tickets to the band’s upcoming shows, head here.
Toy Factory Project – “Fire On The Mountain” (Grateful Dead), “I’ll be Loving You”, “Southern Women” – 2/26/26
[Video: Skelator Revisited]
Toy Factory Project – “Searchin’ For A Rainbow,” “A New Life” – 2/26/26
[Video: Skelator Revisited]
Toy Factory Project – “Hillbilly Band”, “This Ol’ Cowboy”, “In My Own Way”, “Blue Ridge Mountain Sky”, “Can’t You See”, “Take The Highway” – 2/26/26
[Video: Skelator Revisited]
Toy Factory Project – “Heard It In A Love Song” – 2/26/26
[Video: Skelator Revisited]
Toy Factory Project – “You Ain’t Foolin’ Me” – 2/27/26
[Video: Lary Chinowsky]
Toy Factory Project – “In My Own Way” – 2/27/26
[Video: FretsmanRFS]
Toy Factory Project – “Where A Country Boy Belongs” – 2/27/26
[Video: Lary Chinowsky]
Toy Factory Project – “Southern Woman” – 2/27/26
[Video: FretsmanRFS]
Toy Factory Project – “Searchin For A Rainbow” – 2/27/26
[Video: Skelator Revisited]
Toy Factory Project – “Running Like The Wind” – 2/27/26
[Video: Skelator Revisited]
Toy Factory Project – “24 Hours At A Time” – 2/27/26
[Video: Lary Chinowsky]
Toy Factory Project – “See You Later, I’m Gone”, “Long Hard Ride” – 2/27/26
[Video: Skelator Revisited]
Toy Factory Project – “Fire On The Mountain” – 2/27/26
[Video: FretsmanRFS]
Toy Factory Project – “Can’t You See” – 2/27/26
[Video: FretsmanRFS]
Toy Factory Project – “Heard It In A Love Song” – 2/27/26
[Video: Skelator Revisited]
Setlist: Toy Factory Project | Capitol Theatre | Port Chester, NY | 2/26/26
Set 1: Running Like the Wind, Fly Like an Eagle, 24 Hours at a Time, Long Hard Ride, Fire on the Mountain, Fire on the Mountain (Grateful Dead), I’ll Be Loving You, Southern Woman, Searchin’ for a Rainbow, A New Life
Set 2: Hillbilly Band, This Ol’ Cowboy, In My Own Way, Blue Ridge Mountain Sky, Can’t You See, Take the Highway
Encore: Heard It in a Love Song
Setlist: Toy Factory Project | Capitol Theatre | Port Chester, NY | 2/27/26
Set 1: Hillbilly Band, You Ain’t Foolin’ Me, A New Life, This Ol’ Cowboy, In My Own Way, Where a Country Boy Belongs, Blue Ridge Mountain Sky, Southern Woman, Searchin’ for a Rainbow
Set 2: Running Like the Wind, 24 Hours at a Time, See You Later, I’m Gone, Long Hard Ride, Fire on the Mountain, Can’t You See, Take the Highway
Encore: Heard It in a Love Song
