For all their quintessential southernness, Blackberry Smoke have always hit on a universal level. Lyrical blends of observation and autobiography, their songs hinge on timeless themes: characters we’ve all known; feelings we’ve all had; the endlessly fascinating lives of others; incisive musings on divorce, bar fights, life on the road, sex, heartache, parenthood and more, their honeyed tones born in country, gospel and bluegrass, then marinated in the rock and metal records of the band’s teenage years.
“But that story never really ends,” says Charlie Starr. “There will never stop being love songs, and there will never stop being songs about home, either going home or leaving home, men singing songs about women, and vice versa, and the relationship or lack thereof. I don’t know. The blues. I need it. Where’s my woman? Where’s my man?
It continues to happen generation after generation.”
At home in Atlanta, Blackberry Smoke’s chief architect has the manner of someone whose wildest days are behind him – even if the memories have never faded. Kind eyes, thick-rimmed glasses, chunky silver at his wrists and fingers, hair grazing slim shoulders. Electric guitars and a small crucifix hang on the walls behind him.
Back home from a hefty bout of touring, he’s here to talk about the band’s eighth studio album, Be Right Here. Alot of things about it advocate living in the moment. The title itself. Lyrics peppered across the track-list. The raw, minimaltakes nature of its production (in late 2022/early 2023). The aggressive brain cancer that hospitalised drummer Brit Turner, imbuing subsequent recording sessions with a fresh imperative. Asense that our time on this mortal
