Blackberry Smoke Revives the Monster Southern Rock Anthem on “Find A Light”
Blackberry Smoke has done it again, and I cannot confirm or deny that this mild-mannered, professional music reviewer at one point found himself standing precariously on the top of a couch, back arched and mouth agape, blaring air guitar while supposed to be objectively listening to this record, and feigned cleaning cobwebs off the knick knack shelf when walked in upon.
What the hell happened to rock and roll? What poor, miserable bastards have to grow up in a world where the preeminent rock bands of their generation are Arcade Fire and Imagine Dragons? In a just world, Cody Jinks and the Turnpike Troubadours would regularly be played on mainstream corporate radio, Dale Watson would be a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and Blackberry Smoke would be burning down arenas filled to capacity with throngs of out-of-control fans trying to crash the stage, and a militarized police force having to use water canons to disburse the crowd after the show.
Screw talk of saving country music, or even notions of “Southern rock.” With their latest album Find A Light, Blackberry Smoke prove they’re singlehandedly saving rock and roll and everything that stands for—Southern, countrified, and everything in between. Blackberry Smoke transcends genre—in the good way where you’re so badass, everyone wants to claim you as their own, and no single scene can contain you.
These Atlanta boys are on one hell of a run at the moment, delivering new, original records in three out of the last four years, with both of their last two albums going #1 on the country charts, including 2015’s Holding All The Roses becoming the first independently-released record to do so in modern history. They’re like Sturgill Simpson of country rock, and we’re not making damn near enough noise about them. Blackberry Smoke even produced this latest effort themselves, and beyond other things, Find A Light is an unbridled romp into the unrelenting power of the fat and fuzzy Southern harmony riff set into grooves so righteous, they remind you of the Golden years of Southern-infused classic rock greatness the likes of which we haven’t heard in decades.
Where the arc Blackberry Smoke carved with their previous two records was a slow, but purposeful maturing to a more songwriter-based country sound punctuated with the occasional Southern rock romp, Find a Light is vice versa. Prepare to accidentally piss off your neighbors when you lose all self control piping up “Flesh and Bone,” “The Crooked Kind,” “Nobody Gives A Damn,” and especially the epic, Gospel-soaked anthem “I’ll Keep Ramblin'” featuring pedal steel maestro Robert Randolph.
Sure there are plenty of Southern rock and country “bands” out there thinking if they put a Confederate flag head on their bass drum and name drop Gregg Allman, that’s all it takes. Hell Blackberry Smoke had Gregg Allman on their last record, and though no disrespect is meant towards their previous two albums, Find A Light might be the one to pick out of the stack if you’re looking for a place to start.
Blackberry Smoke doesn’t give a shit anymore about trying to fit into anyone’s preconceived notions of what they should be. Find A Light is the band unsheathing the guitars and going for it. In this calculating music world where so many bands are obsessed with their public perceptions, it’s refreshing, needed, well past due, and welcomed to have a band indulge their barbaric rock and roll masculinity and let the cards fall where they may.
But Find A Light is blessed with variety as well, finding quiet moments with Amanda Shires on the heartbreaking “Let Me Down Easy,” and with The Woods Brothers via the delicate harmonies on “Mother Mountain” that may remind some of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. These guys prick such an array of emotions and eras in their efforts with Find A Light, and revive sounds that are going so incredibly underserved except for backlist titles from classic rock greats. Yet their efforts to record roaring anthems and tear-soaked ballads are in the right here, the right now, in the modern context, hoping to become the classics for future generations, and replenish what ClearChannel ran into the ground for decades on classic rock stations.
This record isn’t a masterpiece. There’s a few swings and misses maybe, like the strange bridge of “Medicate My Mind” that meanders too much. But hey, they never claimed to be Rembrandt. Blackberry Smoke is saying, “We’re here. It’s our time to step up and save the Southern music, be damned what anyone else thinks is cool or relevant.” And that’s exactly what they accomplish on Find a Light.
Two Guns Up (9/10)
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April 7, 2018 @ 9:45 am
Amen! I couldn’t agree anymore. I thought we’d have back to back perfect album scores/guns, but I’ll settle for a silver-ish 9. Especially, since I haven’t heard any of these tracks live, which is their bread and butter. It wasn’t until I saw them live twice last year at two Willie events that I fell in love with them.
This album is going to get me a speeding ticket.
Usually an album with so many guest appearances sets off some alarms – but this album is coherent despite the varying influences …. which is no easy task.
April 7, 2018 @ 9:51 am
“This album is going to get me a speeding ticket. “
Sums up this record just about perfectly.
April 7, 2018 @ 7:36 pm
Great album & uh review but I have to disagree on 1 point. ,,Medicate my Mind plus I be Ramblin are the 2 most ass kicking tunes on the album .
April 8, 2018 @ 11:58 am
Ive listened to album.
6 times already. As usual they do not disappoint. Seen live 10 times.
Badass
December 3, 2018 @ 6:56 pm
This record will grab you by the boo boo
April 7, 2018 @ 10:01 am
Go Go BBS!
April 7, 2018 @ 10:09 am
Yeehaw
April 7, 2018 @ 10:14 am
I would say that Drive By Truckers have passed the torch to Blackberry Smoke, but I think BSS is straight up stealing the mantle.
April 7, 2018 @ 10:46 am
GREAT tracks …..the magic with these boys is how they make everything right about the familiar sound new and fresh .
brilliant players, writers and singers , expert craftsmen , unstoppable energy and conviction .
and I’m so jealous of that hair I could cry
April 7, 2018 @ 1:09 pm
I resemble that last hair remark!
April 7, 2018 @ 11:06 am
Spot on with this and the Sarah Shook review. I’d love to see a review for the new Goodnight, Texas record. The new one from Western Centuries is great as well. Thanks for all the work you do.
April 7, 2018 @ 11:38 am
For me, this is the third perfect record of the year along with Sarah Shook and Mike and the Moonpies.
April 7, 2018 @ 11:55 am
So. Damn. Good.
Thank God there’s a real live rock and roll band still living and breathing out there.
April 7, 2018 @ 12:20 pm
Amen to all of that!
April 7, 2018 @ 12:37 pm
Been a fan for many years and they still manage to blow me away! I will always recommend BBS to anyone! #SpreadTheSmoke
April 7, 2018 @ 1:47 pm
I turned the stereo up to 11 for this one.It rocks and the quieter moments are great too.They’ve not reinvented the wheel but they sure have pumped up the tyre.
Can’t wait to hear them live again when they visit the UK in Nov
April 7, 2018 @ 1:50 pm
Great band live, but that style of music does not translate well to the modern, sterile, time-warped, digital recording format. Pro Tools was built for pop – not real music.
April 8, 2018 @ 9:31 am
whoa hoss…. don’t want to start a pissing match here, but you’re way off mark. If you’re recording and mixing music with Pro Tools or any other digital system, there’s no rule book that says you have to autotune, quantize, edit, pulverize or mangle anything. On any of these systems, you can hit record and hit playback without engaging any of these processes. It is the engineer, producer, or artists decision to use these tools. It’s the music fans decision to like or dislike the results. Once you get past this, the main difference from analog multitrack recording and mixing is a much greater number of individual tracks available on a digital disc based system. Of course many will claim analog “sounds better” but seriously folks, have a gander at how much music these days is delivered by a lossy compression file – kinda diminishes the golden ear debate no matter if you’re in the analog or digital camp.
I think what rubs folks the wrong way about digital is that the immense capability of digital systems allows the musicians, engineers and producers to take their foot off the gas a bit while cutting tracks cause they know things can get “fixed”. This affects everybody in the sessions performance. I think this is part of the “sterility” that turns folks off. Add a bunch of needless processing and what you have is a milkshake mostly devoid of any real dairy ingredients. Now that we are quite a few years into the proliferation of Digital Audio Workstations in music production, we’ve proved that you can take almost any kind of “musical performance” and output marketable “music product”.
For many people, beat detected, quantized, autotuned, cut-to-shreds then re-assembled music product is exactly what they’re looking for. If you’re looking for something more real…. something more nutritious…. embrace the producers and artists that get you where you want to go no matter what type of truck got their products to your doorstep.
Google search an old analog recording console, an old analog tape machine, and a current Pro Tools operator manual. Look these over. On any of these devices, there is no button or switch for concept, heart or soul. You should have these before walking in the front door of the studio.
Apologies for the ramble but this subject always hits a raw nerve.
April 8, 2018 @ 10:37 am
Of course there’s no rule book saying you have to use all the stupid toys, but they always get used…because they’re there…
Sure, you can just hit record, run it out, and not digitally fix everything…never happens that way.
And in the end, you’re always left with a software developer’s interpretation of what could have been music. Music vibrates, sweats, bleeds, and hisses – while 1s and 0s cower in the corner.
Long live 8-track tapes! 😀
April 8, 2018 @ 11:20 am
I don’t get the criticism of this record sounding stuffy or digitized. I think it’s got incredible presence, which is one of the reasons I love it. SO MUCH of modern independent country music these days is purposely making their albums sound like shit under the misguided notion that this is how you instill them with the “soul” of older records. I’m all for analog, 2-inch tape recording, but you can still cut live to tape and achieve good presence and low hiss. 20 years from now, people are going to be listening back to all these records and wonder why they didn’t take advantage of the modern-day technology to make them sound better. The bands in the 70’s weren’t using gear from the 40’s under the guise it made them sound better. The reason that Blackberry Smoke sounds so good here is not because they’re cleaning up the records digitally to make them perfect, it’s because they’re simply going into the studio, cueing up some mics, and not trying to get too cute with the production while everyone else is purposely making their records sound dim and scratchy. When you listen to Blackberry Smoke, you can feel it, and that’s what separates them from the herd of independent releases.
April 7, 2018 @ 2:15 pm
Hell yes!
Absolutely love BBS!
Brining back the sounds of Skynrd, zz top, etc /
Any chance of reviewing Shotgun Rider’s Palo Duro album?
April 7, 2018 @ 2:28 pm
Yes, it’s on my radar. Super packed release weeks here recently. Reviewed five albums last week, four this week. Maxed out with the amount of music being crammed in my brain, but we’ll get caught up.
April 7, 2018 @ 2:47 pm
This whole month!
Good luck.
April 7, 2018 @ 3:31 pm
I’m trying to find the love for this band, but it keeps losing me. As a big time DBTs fan I should like them, but I just can’t take them serious. They always sound like they’re trying to entertain you rather than saying ‘Ive just come back from the depth of hell and I’m going to pour out my demons’
The DBTs had/have songs with words. This just doesn’t compare to ‘Decoration Day’. Or ‘Lookout Mountain’, or ‘Zip City’.
I respect their music, but it needs more pain for me to enjoy it. Does that make me a sadist?
April 7, 2018 @ 3:42 pm
Yes.
April 7, 2018 @ 3:46 pm
There must be a lot like me though. Dolly Parton said that when she started writing in Nashville, the saying was ‘if you want a hit, you’ve got to make it hurt’
Apparently pain sells records
April 7, 2018 @ 3:53 pm
Ancient wisdom there.
I can’t and won’t argue, but pain is not the only emotion that sells.
April 7, 2018 @ 4:00 pm
True, but all I’m getting is a fleeting narcissistic happiness. With killer guitar work.
I respect the band, I really do, I have ‘the Whiporwill’ and really liked it, but they lose me. Even when I saw them open for Zac Brown they didn’t have anything that you remembered afterwards
April 7, 2018 @ 7:35 pm
I’d say at the height of DBTs powers (Southern Rock Opera thru Brighter Than Creation’s Dark with a brief return with English Oceans bc of Cooley), nobody was better. Even as Isbell has eclipsed them in popularity and acclaim, he hasn’t made a record that has surpassed Decoration Day or The Dirty South, because three stellar songwriters each put their best work forward together.
DBT was (I say was bc Cooley is their only saving grace now) that rare band that could evoke Sticky Fingers-era Stones (very hard to do) with Skynyrd while actually sounding a lot cooler than Skynyrd.
BBS highs (Let Me Help You Find The Door, Who Invented The Wheel, Flesh And Bone, etc) are definitely on par with DBT, but they haven’t yet gelled it on a full album level that DBT used to.
DBT is starting to lose the plot bc Hood is trying way to hard to be this generations Uncle Neil Young and is getting more annoying in the process. After losing Isbell and then Shona, he shouldered more songwriting than he was capable of, and instead of continuing to churn out gems, he started in with the filler. Meanwhile, Cooley has just stayed the steady proverbial ace in the hole, pun intended.
This more than opens the door for BBS and one more album from both should sum up the transition between reigning Kings of southern rock.
April 9, 2018 @ 6:05 am
This is well thought out and well written, and I think right on the money. Nicely done.
I love the Truckers as well, but sometimes, it’s all right to just be “entertained.” Sometimes I don’t want to think about everything that’s wrong in the world, and I just want to hear some geetar pumping through a double stack Marshall. BBS delivers.
April 9, 2018 @ 7:25 am
I’ve never heard a band that sounded cooler than Skynyrd. Certainly not Drive By Truckers. I like Mike Cooley, and he’s always been the best part of that band, but there are very few musicians less cool than Patterson Hood.
April 9, 2018 @ 8:09 am
Stroker Ace’s contributions to English Oceans cannot be overstated.
April 10, 2018 @ 5:06 am
Hood’s early work (Gangsta and Pizza) showed huge promise, promise that he more than delivered on in Southern, Decoration, Dirty, Blessing, and Brighter. I don’t feel like I’m going out on a limb saying that in their last four albums, the only great song he’s written is Used To Be A Cop.
And Skynyrd was mighty cool, but I always wanted a little more Needle And The Spoon, and a little less Workin For MCA
April 10, 2018 @ 12:18 pm
Dirty South is such a damn good album. SRO gets all the accolades, but I prefer that one. Where The Devil, Never Gonna Change, and Lookout Mt. So good.
April 9, 2018 @ 9:47 am
For the record BBS did not write Who Invented The Wheel
April 7, 2018 @ 7:43 pm
I sort of felt the same way until I saw them in concert.
April 10, 2018 @ 11:27 am
If you want some personal demon tormented writing with a hard reach for redemption, check out Evan Bartels record on Spotify. No Depression loved it and its been put on multiple “Best of 2017” lists. Good Lord. Kid is only 25 and really came into his own sound when he hired Shooter’s original drummer Bryan Keeling.
April 7, 2018 @ 3:50 pm
Helluva review, Trig. In the past, they’ve sounded more like talented fans to me, but I really want them to succeed on every level. It seems like the drive is really there. Maybe they’ve come of age.
(listening)
These tracks should rock, live. I’d like to hear Charlie howl, once. Try not to say so much. Nothing needs to be wordy.
April 7, 2018 @ 5:33 pm
One of the unusual things about them is that
This band actually puts out albums where every song is good.
Second track is something new for them, really liked it.
April 7, 2018 @ 6:35 pm
I like it all but especially that second track! They really do rock.
April 7, 2018 @ 5:42 pm
It’s not bad but I’m having a hard time getting into this one. Perhaps a few more listens may change that.
April 7, 2018 @ 6:52 pm
Gave it a listen tonight. Good stuff! Where some bands start off hot and fizzle, BBS is just the opposite. To me they get better and better. Blackberry Smoke along with Whiskey Meyers are Saving Country Music and Rock Music
April 7, 2018 @ 8:21 pm
Love these guys. This album rocks. Saw them last summer and they had Duane Betts come out for a jam, really bad ass.
April 8, 2018 @ 2:04 pm
I usually stream albums before buying them, but damn this album is phenomenal. BlackBerry Smoke and the Steel Woods are 2 bands that are making great Southern rock albums.
April 8, 2018 @ 6:24 pm
BBS are a band that I’ve always wanted to like, but for whatever reason, their appeal has always slipped by me. That being said, I really enjoyed “I’ll Keep Rambling” in no small part due to Randolph’s pedal steel.
April 9, 2018 @ 6:46 am
BBS are what they are.
They always put out solid material.
This album is great first couple listens. Going to take some time to settle in, but all their albums are like that.
It is upon repeated listens that you really begin to appreciate how good they are. Subtleties and the cleverness become more apparent.
If you don’t like them, it is personal taste.
But they are talented and can play and put on a fun live show.
April 9, 2018 @ 7:30 am
I listened to this album this first time on my headphones in the office and thought, “This is nice, but not that big of a deal.”
I tried it again this weekend when I had to drive an expanse of Interstate… and I had to let the windows down during this dogwood winter we’re having in Tennessee, crank up the stereo, and make sure that my right foot didn’t get too heavy. Perfect car album. I had a lot of fun. My thirteen year old loves Imagine Dragons and the AC/DC that his dad filled his iPod with. Time to introduce him to what rock n roll is now!
April 9, 2018 @ 1:43 pm
I agree with you wholeheartedly on this one. Saw these guys open for ZBB about 7 years ago and was underwhelmed. Five years later they sounded like a different band. They have sharpened their sound and songwriting with each of the past three albums, getting tighter while staying loose.
April 9, 2018 @ 3:40 pm
Love it. I too have been a fan for a little over 10 years and it’s great to see them doing so well. I wasn’t sure how far they’d go but it’s great to see them exceeding expectations.
April 10, 2018 @ 7:02 am
The world may have gone to hell, but Blackberry Smoke is a taste of heaven
April 10, 2018 @ 8:01 am
The criticism of BBS is laughable. And bringing up DBT…eye roll, come on. Comparing these 2 bands is ridiculous & probably only done because they are both from South.
In a time where music & especially rock is saturated with garbage, its hard to fathom negative words about BBS …they have a great sound, good lyrics, can actually play their instruments as well..imagine that. I saw them 3 times on the outlaw cruise & one was a full acoustic show…they were great.
I haven’t heard one band in last 9 years who does a better job than them…and please don’t suggest whiskey Meyers or Blackstone cherry lol
April 10, 2018 @ 10:49 am
I don’t see any criticism of BBS above, more of “they’re not my cup of tea” but mixed with respect.
I think that while DBT and BBS are clearly two different kinds of bands, they have both been saddled with the “reigning kings of Southern rock” or ” the next Skynyrd” monikers. The Truckers got it from a lot of the mainstream music press after SRO was released, which I never thought was accurate. Pretty clear that what they were doing was not the same thing as Skynyrd. And especially as of late, certainly not the same thing as BBS. Other than loud guitars. Which I have zero issues with.
April 11, 2018 @ 6:30 am
I’ve always liked BBS’s style and musicality but felt Starr’s writing kinda came up short at times. This really shows an amazing growth as a writer and the work he’s put in. Easily the best BBS album. Really displays their commitment to their craft. Much respect.
April 11, 2018 @ 9:27 am
What a month for great music!
April 11, 2018 @ 4:59 pm
From my perspective, this band has been an “every other offering is superb”. Dixie was my intro to the band, good but not great. Whippoorwill was next – Wow!, Roses, good but…..; Like an Arrow – Wow!. This one is really good, but I am really waiting for the next Wow!
That being said, this is the best Rock-n-roll I have heard in a long while.
May 19, 2018 @ 9:09 pm
If you have not seen them live , you probably don’t get it . I love the new one .
June 4, 2018 @ 5:08 pm
Arcade Fire are a great band! Why are you picking on them? Don’t do that! It hurts!
Yes, the direction they took on Reflektor probably hit a dead end on Everything Now, but that doesn’t change the fact that the first four albums are masterpiece after masterpiece.
June 7, 2018 @ 7:29 pm
I could not agree more strongly! BBS made me love concerts and rockin with good people like it was the 70’s again!! And then I saw Whiskey Myers live . . . holy shit!!! That band rocks so hard and their songs are so real I cannot wait for their next release! And the cowbell solo was over the top! The state of rock is in good hands with these two bands leading the charge!