Blackberry Smoke’s “Holding All The Roses” Hits #1
You had a sense going into Blackberry Smoke’s new album Holding All The Roses that this could be a big one for the Atlanta-based band, and now were seeing all of the hard work and the good will they’ve sewed with their fan base over the last 15 years or so paying off big. Holding All The Roses shipped 19,614 copies in its first week of sales, which is good enough for #1 on Billboard’s Country Albums Chart. It also showed up on the Billboard Rock chart at #7, and the all-encompassing Billboard 200 at #29.
The band’s previous album The Whippoorwill peaked at #8 upon debut.
“All of us are very proud and thrilled to be partners with Blackberry Smoke,” says John Virant, president of Rounder Records. “Their continued growth and success are a true testament to the deep connection they have with their fans.” Blackberry Smoke moved to the legendary Rounder roots label after Zac Brown’s Southern Ground dissolved.
“Blackberry Smoke continues to be one of the most hardworking, accessible, and engaging bands working today,” says Trey Wilson of Vector Management. “They know their fan base, and who supports them. They are establishing a body of work that will serve as validation for a long time to come, but having a number one album sure helps.”
Holding All The Roses finds Blackberry Smoke forging a definitively more rock sound than on previous efforts. Paired with Grammy Award-winning producer Brendan O’Brien, for the first time we find the band totally unfettered from superfluous obligations to labels and overbearing business lackeys, and in this space they’re simply allowed to be themselves.
READ: Album Review Blackberry Smoke’s “Holding All The Roses”
The band has also just released a new video by JuddFilms for one of the more country offerings from the albums called “Too High.”
February 18, 2015 @ 6:47 pm
#1 on the country charts and how many traditional country stations have ever even heard of them?
February 18, 2015 @ 8:30 pm
Great news for a great band.
February 18, 2015 @ 8:44 pm
These guys are new to me but I really like them. Gonna get this album for sure.
February 18, 2015 @ 8:48 pm
Well they should be # 1 cause they’re badass. There’s a band that has opened fr them some called The Delta Saints. Recently started listening to them and been pretty pleased. Especially when I’m in more of a rock mood. But u definitely can’t go wrong with BBS
February 18, 2015 @ 9:16 pm
Great news, love to see bands who just grind away year after year, pick up momentum like this and raise their profile.
I also love that video for “Too High”, it’s my favorite song off their new album and while I could go for more Country on the album, it’s still really good.
February 18, 2015 @ 9:39 pm
I love this album so much, couldn’t be happier for these guys. Out of the 4 new albums I’ve heard this year this one is by far the best
February 18, 2015 @ 9:39 pm
BBS always puts out quality stuff. Not a single release they’ve made is bad, so if you’re new to the band, by all means check out all their stuff.
As they are probably my favorite band, I will respectfully say this is not their best work. Not to say it isn’t great, nor is it a step backwards, I just don’t think its quite as good as Whippoorwill or Little Piece. There’s great stuff on it, but there’s a few songs that just don’t bring out the energy and excitement as some of their better stuff does. Not disappointed with it though, still gonna get plenty of spins.
February 18, 2015 @ 11:14 pm
Well deserved this album is seriously the best album to be put out by anyone in years! They are the hardest working band I know of and they love and appreciate their fans they deserve number ones and respect from radio they do not get but who really needs radio when you have their talent and fan base!
February 18, 2015 @ 11:35 pm
Am I the only person out there that thinks this was a couple steps backward from The Whippoorwill? That album was a pleasant surprise. This one seems repetitive and more generic southern rock based.
February 19, 2015 @ 7:03 am
No. And I don’t think you are being a hipster for saying it, either. 😉
Not steps back, in my opinion. More like a shuffle step to the side, maybe? These are great performances. I am not thrilled with the production choices.
It got them to no. 1, so I am fine with it. I know they long for my approval. :p
I think it is going to end up being slightly more listenable front-to-back, over the long term. Don’t know what makes me think that.
February 18, 2015 @ 11:36 pm
A very well-deserved chart showing for a great band. I pre-ordered the new cd through their website, and they actually shipped them out early to fans that pre-ordered. I had mine almost a full week before the actual release date, and I really love the cd. Best Buy has a version with 2 extra songs, so I picked that one up too.
February 19, 2015 @ 5:47 am
“Sowed”
February 19, 2015 @ 7:41 am
Great album by a great band. As a band, they strike an excellent balance between country and rock, which appeals to this rock lover. Unrelated, but i am curious why there has not been more love on this site for the new Cody Canada and the Departed release. Its great and sits in a similar space, country with strong rock overtones. I thought Cross Canadian Ragweed was amazing and although the Departed stuff has not quite caught the same steady stride yet, I like all three releases thus far. Cody should be supported here!
February 19, 2015 @ 9:30 am
I love Cody Canada. Love CCR. Usually see Cody at least twice a year (and I live in the NW). But wow that new album is terrible. It sounds like he walked into the studio and made up 11 songs on the spot. I tried and I tried, but can’t get into it. I don’t think I am alone in the opinion that he’s a bit lost. I hope he pulls out of it. All of the best Departed stuff has been the Seth James songs. But now that he’s gone . . . .
Can’t say enough about the new Blackberry though. It is a grower — love it more every time I listen to it. Best record I have heard in the past 12 months.
February 19, 2015 @ 9:42 am
I agree completely. I have been following Cody since CCR’s early days of playing the Golden Light Cantina with Cooder Graw (possibly first Texas gig). I have been a huge Seth James since the early 2000’s. I have no idea where Cody’s creativity has gone, but I do not like the latest album at all. I was sad to see Seth leave The Departed. Regardless, Cody has left his boot print on Texas/Red Dirt music and CCR help build a solid foundation for the newer artists today.
February 19, 2015 @ 7:48 am
It’s very hard to do what these guys are doing.
One thing’s for sure”¦ whatever it is or isn’t , the album is as close as they could get to what they wanted it to be.
I’m very glad for these guys, I expect that their success and following will continue to grow.
February 19, 2015 @ 7:51 am
An interesting thing about them, they are just as good at an acoustic set, as they are with their heavy amplified setup.
Having the power go out at a concert would not be a problem for this band, at all.
February 19, 2015 @ 9:17 am
I have been watching videos of these guys and they seem better in an pseudo-acoustic setting”¦.Love that they do Deep Ellum and My old friend the blues. When I watched their “bigger” sound and maybe it was all original stuff, it just made me want to see DBT. But I sure liked that seated stuff. They obviously have great taste and I can see why they have a big fan base.
February 19, 2015 @ 10:04 am
They are really generous with their own videos.
February 19, 2015 @ 7:52 am
score one for the good guys indeed….to quote BBS “I feel a good one coming on”
February 19, 2015 @ 9:34 am
I saw these guys at a strange venue several years ago. They played for attendees of Advanced Armament’s Silencer Shoot outside of West Memphis, Arkansas. It was over 100 degrees and 90% humidity after the sun went down and they took the stage. The crowd was worn out from the day’s activities and there were only a few dozen people who stayed to watch the show, which was amazing. They were oblivious to the crowd and played their asses off. I’d love to see them again and soon.
February 19, 2015 @ 11:20 am
I’m not sure I follow the video. There is a guy apparently cooking meth in a shack in the woods. Two young girls (the meth-cooker’s nieces, apparently) go running through the woods, while two city-slickers who look like Feds roll up in a big SUV to a nearby farmhouse. A young woman (apparently the mother of the young girls, and the sister of the meth-cooker?) points the Feds into the woods. The young girls shout to the meth-cooker, who comes out of the shack and hands one girl an old polaroid of a boy and a younger girl, on which he has scrawled, “you are not your brother’s keeper” (apparently a message to his sister?). He walks hand in hand with the girls to meet the Feds, turns the girls over to them, then walks away.
So, are the feds supposed to be looking for the meth-cooker? If so, why do they simply walk away with the young girls? Or are they looking for the girls? Since when do Feds tramp through the woods looking for lost little girls? Why would their mother be back at the house? Are the Feds supposed to be so touched by the meth-cooker’s appearance hand-in-hand with his nieces that they decide not to arrest him, and simply walk away? Or is this all the prelude to a shoot-out they have generously decided to postpone until the girls are off-site? Or maybe he is not cooking meth, but making a baking-soda volcano? Am I missing something obvious, or does this not really add up?
February 19, 2015 @ 11:40 am
Most of the videos from JuddFilms involve strong narrative and character, many times involving deep themes that sometimes take some time to unravel, or are left open to interpretation. I think that’s part of the point, and a way to get you to engage with the video more deeply.
Frankly, I’m not exactly sure what’s going on there either, but in some respects I like it that way.
February 19, 2015 @ 12:16 pm
Thanks, Trigger,
Yes, in that regard the video works well, as it got me to watch three times and then write a response to your review, which I probably would not have done if the video had been limited to the footage of the band. But if others have a coherent interpretation of the story shown here, I’d be interested to see it.
February 19, 2015 @ 9:06 pm
I watched the video a few times to figure out what’s going on in the story. No luck from a literal point of view. Still, I found it very compelling.
February 19, 2015 @ 3:31 pm
Interesting to me (likely nobody else) that this doesn’t even appear top 80 in iTunes purchased country albums.
Maybe they need a Letterman appearance?
February 19, 2015 @ 3:37 pm
My guess is they had a ton of physical pre-orders. They had a bunch of bundle deals and such going on, and as someone else pointed out, buying physical allowed folks to get it about a week early.
February 19, 2015 @ 4:53 pm
At least they knocked out Sam Hunt out of the top spot.
February 20, 2015 @ 10:17 pm
Videos don,t have to follow the song. Just listen to the lyrics.They may have a message or leave it to the individual interpretation. Personally I think the message is, Some days are good some arent.
February 24, 2015 @ 12:31 pm
I’m sad to admit that up until this release, I’d completely ignored these guys so I’ll never get to enjoy the “been with ’em since day one” status. Nothing against them at all, it just seemed like there were already more than a few bands out there attempting the same vibe. Shit, I already own everything The Drive-by Truckers ever did, right? Right. And how about Powder Mill? Oh,and if I want that old sound I grew up with I got my Allmans, Marshall Tucker Band, Outlaws, and Molly Hatchet cds around here somewhere too…and this is what I get for making half-assed presumptions. This one grabbed me by the ears from the opening note, kicking my 34 year-old ass all the way back to a decade where I didn’t even exist, immediately demanding repeat-listens both on my home-stereo (yes, I still have one) and in my car. This one just feels timeless and, well….awesome. Something I’ll be coming back to years from now and that’s about the highest praise I can throw.
March 15, 2015 @ 10:42 pm
I just saw Leon Virgil Bowers, The Temperance Movement and Blackberry Smoke last Friday. Leon was amazing, just him, a guitar, harmonica and a bass drum. The Temperance Movement are definitely not country, but I thought that they were great. The lead singer is very energetic and they have kind of a “Black Crowes-type sound” to my untrained ears. Of course, I have always thought that Blackberry Smoke had the same type sound on some songs (Shake Your Magnolia, for example). The songs from Holding All The Roses really take on a new life when you hear them live and sound even better than on the record. I also loved when Blackberry Smoke played some Led Zeppelin “Your Time Is Gonna Come” in the middle of “Sleeping Dogs”. Definitely worth the money, not just for Blackberry Smoke, but the two opening acts as well.
March 16, 2015 @ 3:23 am
Yes, I am replying to myself. No, I am not normal. After listening to the whole The Temperance Movement cd, they do have a few songs that sound country-influenced, but their live performance had none of that.
April 12, 2015 @ 6:31 pm
I want to get into this band, but I’m not sure whether to start with this album or an old one such as The Whippoorwill.
I’m also slightly reluctant to buy Holding All the Roses because, based on the samples I’ve heard online, it sounds like another casualty in the loudness wars. I don’t like listening to albums that have been “brickwalled” in the mastering process – sometimes they actually hurt my ears!
Don”™t know if anyone will read my comment. I realize this is the kind of question that probably belongs on a message board.