Blackberry Smoke - Holding All The Roses (2015)

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Blackberry Smoke - Holding All The Roses (2015)

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Georgia rock quintet Blackberry Smoke could write the book on how to "slow build" a career. Since 2000, singer/guitarist Charlie Starr, guitarist Paul Jackson, keyboard player Brandon Still, and brothers Brit and Richard Turner on drums and bass, respectively, have played in excess of 250 dates a year in funky honky tonks, rock clubs, and on festival stages on both sides of the Atlantic, learning how to write songs in the process. Holding All the Roses is their Rounder debut, the follow-up to 2012's killer The Whippoorwill. It was recorded in less than two weeks, during a brief touring respite, with producer – and Georgia native – Brendan O'Brien (AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam). While it might startle longtime fans, there are no sprawling jams on this set – all 12 tunes are under five minutes. Instead, Holding All the Roses showcases the band's tightness and their considerable development as rock & roll songwriters. While the first single, "Rock & Roll Again," is down in the vein of their earlier work, it's a bridge to the present: Starr's voice struts and guitars boil. It feels like a young Dave Edmunds backed by the Outlaws. On "Let Me Help You (Find the Door)," Starr's grainy, soulful voice moves heaven and earth, carried by twin guitars crashing into the rhythm section's wall. The title track is a screaming stomp with blazing Southern guitar rock threaded with hot bluegrass flatpicking in late-'70s hard-jamming fashion. "Woman in the Moon" joins Southern psych with country rock. Still's B-3 and electric piano, guest Ann Marie Simpson's layered violins, and Blackjack Billy on backing vocals add spacy textures to solid grooves. "Wish in One Hand" is a floor-stomping, hard rock boogie with a singalong refrain colored by smoking twin guitar leads. The swaggering "Payback's a Bitch" uses the riff "Dear Prudence" in heavy fashion, marrying it to blues rock crunch. "Lay It All on Me," with acoustic guitar, pedal steel, and slide guitars alongside the rhythm section and B-3, weaves honky tonk to backporch swing to Texas R&B. "No Way Back to Eden" is exceptionally crafted. It uses country, folk-blues, and roots rock. One can hear trace influences from many sources, but the song's character and imagination are all Blackberry Smoke's. The band's writing prowess has evolved almost beyond measure here. Anthemic closer "Fire in the Hole" recalls the band's live sound wrapped inside a fat, slippery hook with a riff that is equal parts Lynyrd Skynyrd, early Aerosmith, and the James Gang. When an indie band gets a decent recording budget and teams with a big-name producer, often as not they blow it. Not these guys: their confidence matches their ability and it shows. Holding All the Roses delivers on every promise Blackberry Smoke have made to themselves and their fans. This is the record that could – and should – expand their base exponentially.

~ Thom Jurek, All Music

Biography

Building on the Lynyrd Skynyrd Southern rock template, with a good dose of outlaw honky tonk country and a little bit of bluegrass, gospel, and R&B mixed in, Blackberry Smoke (singer/guitarist Charlie Starr, guitarist/singer Paul Jackson, bassist/singer Richard Turner, keyboardist Brandon Still, and drummer Brit Turner) formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2000 and quickly built a loyal fan base on the Southern tour circuit, opening for top-tier acts like Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, the Zac Brown Band, George Jones, and others. The group released a debut album, Bad Luck Ain't No Crime, in 2004 on Cock of the Walk Records, then followed it with the self-released EP New Honky Tonk Bootlegs in 2008. A second EP, Little Piece of Dixie, appeared from Big Karma Records that same year. A full-length album, this one also called Little Piece of Dixie, was released in 2009 by BamaJam Records. The band then signed with Zac Brown's Southern Ground Records, which released The Whippoorwill in 2012. The Whippoorwill was picked up by Earache, who formally signed the band in 2013. A deluxe live audio and video package entitled Leave a Scar: Live North Carolina was issued in the summer of 2014.

Later that year, BS left Brown's label and signed a deal with Rounder in the U.S. (Earache remained their European label). Taking a short break from touring, they entered the studio with producer Brendan O'Brien and emerged less than two weeks later with Holding All the Roses, then went straight back to working on the road. The album was issued in February of 2015.

~ Steve Leggett, All Music

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Blackberry Smoke - Holding All The Roses (2015)

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Blackberry Smoke - Holding All The Roses (2015)

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