Blackberry Smoke Announces New Album “Holding All The Roses”
Photo: Ross Halfin
Rejoice Southern rock fans. If you’re looking for a refill of your favorite poison, Atlanta, Georgia’s formidable Southern rock outfit Blackberry Smoke has just announced they have a brand new album on the way called Holding All The Roses, due on shelves from Rounder Records on February 10th, 2015. It’s the followup to 2012’s acclaimed The Whippoorwill, and their first with Rounder. “I think that this record does a really good job of conveying what we do and what we’re about,” says singer, frontman, and songwriter Charlie Starr.
Holding All The Roses is also the band’s first record with noted producer, mixer, and musician Brendan O’Brien, best known for his work with The Black Crowes, Pearl Jam, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Bruce Springsteen to name a few. Brendan was the producer the band had always wanted to work with. “We didn’t go in and overthink any of the arrangements of the songs with preproduction,” Starr told Lagniappe Weekly in early October. “We just talked on the phone and we went in the studio. We did it and eight days later, we were finished.”
Blackberry decided to go with Rounder after Zac Brown’s Southern Ground label which released The Whippoorwill wasn’t working out. “Southern Ground kind of got shook up, and Zac kind of dissolved it for a while. It was a shame, because he’s our friend. It’s a shame to see a friend have something that doesn’t or didn’t work.”
Starr says listeners can expect more contrast on Holding All The Roses, with more harder-edged material, but also more laid-back material on the 12-track album. “People who enjoyed the ride of ‘The Whippoorwill’ and the way those songs flowed, these are more up and down.”
The band, which is currently in Europe, is also planning to tour the album hard and heavy, including a tour with Leon Virgil Bowers in March.
“The plan for this record is to go out and play as much as we can, and just take it to the people,” Charlie Starr continues. “There’s so much that’s out of your hands when you release a record, but that’s the part that we can control. That, and making an effort to make a better record every time.”
Holding All The Roses is currently available of pre-order, including in limited-edition red vinyl.
Holding All The Roses Track List:
1. Let Me Help You (Find the Door)
2. Holding All the Roses
3. Living in the Song
4. Rock and Roll Again
5. Woman in the Moon
6. Too High
7. Wish in One Hand
8. Randolph County Farewell
9. Payback’s a Bitch
10. Lay It All on Me
11. No Way Back to Eden
12. Fire in the Hole
November 3, 2014 @ 7:03 pm
Winter is going to be heavy with new great music. Whitey Morgan, Ryan Bingham, and Blackberry Smoke. I kind of hate getting all that new music right together because I go through droughts of bad music, but I ain’t complaining.
Really surprised they’re off Zac Brown’s label. I thought they’d be there for a while. Oh well. Hope this new producer works out, too.
November 3, 2014 @ 9:37 pm
exactly what I though ya go months wading through crap and we get blessed with so much at once oh well rather have this issue then not right?
November 3, 2014 @ 7:50 pm
Stoked. That is all.
November 3, 2014 @ 8:13 pm
I’ll be getting it the day it comes out. Beyond stoked!
November 3, 2014 @ 9:35 pm
heck yea! im excited for this one saw them open for ZBB and although ZBB was good they blew em out of the water hope this album lives up to their previous works
November 3, 2014 @ 11:42 pm
I am so excited about this! They have also announced extensive tour dates for next year on their website. Drummer Brit Turner posted a track from the upcoming album on his Facebook page. The song definitely has more of a straight rock and roll feel, but I imagine it will be like “The Whippoorwill”, a good mix of songs.
November 4, 2014 @ 5:37 am
They’ll never Save Country Music, but they might just save my soul!
There aren’t 20 albums in the history of recorded music that I like cover-to-cover, but two of the ones I do are Blackberry Smoke albums. Looking forward to #3!!
November 4, 2014 @ 6:39 am
Actually, I think bands like this are helping to “Save Country Music.” Southern rock is definitely country influenced rock & roll. By people being exposed to this and listening to it, they will go to shows and look at what else is out there and they most likely will find the more “traditional” country acts and (hopefully) hear what real music sounds like.
We discovered the whole Red Dirt/Texas scene simply by seeing a Cross Canadian Ragweed video on CMT years ago (Constantly, I believe it was), and we were hooked. All it takes is something like to happen and people will find it.
Let’s hope that people hear these guys and discover what music is again.
November 4, 2014 @ 8:44 am
Right on, man!
What will definitely Save Country Music for me is someone with an outlook like this one:
“That comes with having to compromise in one way or another,” (Charlie Starr) explains. “We really love the music that we make, the way that we make it. We love to tour the way that we tour and play music for our fans. We want to play for more and more people every night, obviously. But if it ever meant sacrificing one bit of the integrity of the music, or ourselves as musicians, we shun that.
“When you do something to alienate your true fans ”” the people that spend their money and travel around the country to see you ”” if you do something to turn your back on them, then you’ve failed,” he goes on. “[The fair-weather fans] are the ones who are going to buy one song off iTunes and be done with it and forget that it’s on their iPhone, so I’ll take the fans that really care any day.”
source: rollingstone.com
Now–if we can just pry on Trigger’s finger to give them a full 2 Guns Up!
November 4, 2014 @ 11:52 am
you’re probably familiar with this but just in case
do yourself a favour, if you only listen to one tune today”¦..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa5NwJQvlvQ
November 7, 2014 @ 7:57 am
I completely agree… Cover to cover I can listen to them constantly. They have some serious talent.
November 4, 2014 @ 6:26 am
Definitely Charley Starr’s band isn’t it?
This band, in every way I can think of, including their honesty with their music, would
have fit right in with the top bands of the
Woodstock days.
November 4, 2014 @ 6:49 am
Yes! I can’t wait! Wonder when they left Southern Ground… but anyways, this band is awesome!
November 4, 2014 @ 3:35 pm
Just a quick rant…does anybody else seem to notice that unless Florida Georgia Line is the headline, nobody seems to really give a flying fuck about stories like these? It’s really sad. It almost makes me think people want this site to be “Bitch About Country Music” instead of “Saving Country Music”. Anyhow, great site Trigger…Keep up the good work…I can only speak for me when I say your efforts are greatly appreciated
November 4, 2014 @ 5:28 pm
Noticed from watching them on youtube, (lot of live performances on youtube of blackberry smoke)
that their fans look like they’re at the concert to listen to the tunes.
You don’t see anyone hammered, or stoned, or fighting, and you see a lot of people paying attention to the band.
another good thing about this band.
Their fans are there for the music.