AS BLACKBERRY SMOKE recorded their eighth studio album, Be Right Here (3 Legged Records/Thirty Tigers), the sessions developed a greater sense of gravity and intensity. The cause? Drummer Brit Turner was battling brain cancer. But as guitarist Charlie Starr says, Turner’s illness had the effect of making the sessions at Nashville’s famed RCA Studio A more fun and memorable.
“It was so good for us to be making music with Brit as he was undergoing treatment,” Starr says. “I think that whole thing really brought us closer, just knowing that one of our brothers needed love and support. I think it gave the record some urgency.”
The band “always records live,” Starr says, but usually with the drummer in a different room. In this case, however, producer Dave Cobb pushed them to use smaller amps, which allowed everyone to play together in one room, and that ended up being a key decision.
“You can’t work that way in every studio, but RCA A is large enough and there’s enough room to spread out and not bleed into each other’s mics,” Starr says. “And though that wasn’t
