Blackberry Smoke

Blackberry Smoke have updated the Southern rock tradition for contemporary audiences by disregarding trends and remaining faithful to the approach established by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Fronted by singer and songwriter Charlie Starr, the Atlanta, Georgia-based quintet reworked that greasy fusion of hard rock, blues, and country into a muscular, straightforward style prominently displayed on their 2012 release The Whippoorwill. Marking the group’s first appearance on the charts, the set climbed to number 40 on Billboard’s Top 200 and number eight on the country tally, establishing the base for an enduring career sustained through relentless road work and consistent studio output. By the close of the 2010s the band had secured two number-one country albums—2015’s Holding All the Roses and 2016’s Like an Arrow—and earned recognition for delivering the kind of rock & roll associated with the 1970s, a direction they continued on the early-2020s albums You Hear Georgia and Be Right Here, both produced by Dave Cobb.

Singer and guitarist Charlie Starr, guitarist and singer Paul Jackson, bassist and singer Richard Turner, keyboardist Brandon Still, and drummer Brit Turner formed Blackberry Smoke in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2000 and rapidly developed a dedicated following across the Southern club circuit by supporting major acts including Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, the Zac Brown Band, and George Jones. Their debut album, Bad Luck Ain’t No Crime, appeared in 2004 on Cock of the Walk Records, followed by the self-released EP New Honky Tonk Bootlegs in 2008. Later that same year Big Karma Records issued the EP Little Piece of Dixie; a full-length album also titled Little Piece of Dixie came out in 2009 via BamaJam Records. The group then joined Zac Brown’s Southern Ground Records, which issued The Whippoorwill in 2012. Earache subsequently acquired the album and formally signed the band in 2013. A deluxe live audio and video set, Leave a Scar: Live North Carolina, surfaced in summer 2014.

Later that year the band exited Brown’s label and aligned with Rounder in the United States while retaining Earache for Europe. After a brief touring pause they entered the studio with producer Brendan O’Brien, completing Holding All the Roses in under two weeks before resuming road dates. Released in February 2015, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard country charts. Blackberry Smoke returned in autumn 2016 with their second Rounder effort, Like an Arrow. Throughout the next year they toured in support and then reentered the studio for their sixth studio album. The resulting Find a Light, featuring pedal-steel player Robert Randolph, violinist and vocalist Amanda Shires, and the folk outfit the Wood Brothers, arrived in spring 2018, entering the top three of the U.S. country and indie charts while peaking just outside the top 30 on the Billboard 200. A concert recording, Homecoming: Live in Atlanta, followed in 2019 at the band’s hometown venue The Tabernacle. Another live set captured at Macon, Georgia’s Capricorn Studios appeared as the 2020 EP Live from Capricorn Sound Studios.

For their seventh studio album, 2021’s You Hear Georgia, Blackberry Smoke worked again in Nashville with multi-Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb. Jamey Johnson and Warren Haynes contributed guest vocals on “Lonesome for a Livin’” and “All Rise Again,” respectively, while the title track addressed prevailing stereotypes about their home state. The band reunited with Cobb for Be Right Here, issued early in 2024 on Thirty Tigers, an album that highlighted the blues and classic-rock strands within their Southern rock sound. Drummer Brit Turner, diagnosed with glioblastoma in 2022, died from the illness on March 3, 2024, at age 57. He performed on Be Right Here and continued touring until shortly before his death; Kent Aberle assumed the drum chair, and the group pledged to carry forward in tribute to their bandmate.