Charlie Starr’s Son C.C. Gray Releases Debut Single

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photo: American Vintage (YouTube)


It’s been said before that Southern rock outfits are more like families than bands. This is certainly the case for Blackberry Smoke. It was brought into sharper focus recently when Blackberry Smoke’s big brother and drummer Brit Turner passed away due to brain Cancer.

It turns out now that Blackberry Smoke may birth a second generation. Frontman Charlie Starr has a son who has decided to get into the family business, and he doesn’t sound too bad at all, or too far off from pops. His name is C.C. Gray, and he’s just released his debut single.

“I think that it’s fair to say that my music will be reminiscent of Blackberry Smoke. Truthfully, I’m not trying to sound like them, it’s just that musicians create music that sounds like a gumbo of the things we grew up on. Naturally, the music I grew up on is the music my dad was playing in the car,” Gray tells Saving Country Music.

Now 27 years old, C.C. Gray moved from Lanett, Alabama to Nashville to play in a band with guitarist Collin Nash called Montauk. When Nash went to play guitar with Tyler Halverson, C.C. Gray decided to start his own solo project.

“It cannot be overstated how influential Blackberry Smoke is on giving me the confidence to at least try and be a professional musician,” Gray says. “Having been able to watch their career since the beginning, I got to see what cultivating a musical act that people can truly emotionally invest in looks like.”

C.C. Gray recently got an up close and personal observation of what being in Blackberry Smoke looks like, and so did some Blackberry Smoke fans when he appeared during their two-day residency at the Ryman Auditorium in June. Gray came out to perform Molly Hatchet’s “Flirtin’ With Disaster” during the first day’s encore, and then “Jessica” by The Allman Brothers on the second day, with Gray playing the iconic Dickey Betts guitar parts.


But now Gray is ready to emerge from the shadows of the Southern rock greats. He just released the single “If You Dare,” and as promised, it is indicative of Blackberry Smoke and the greater Southern rock canon, but with C.C. putting his own signature on it as well.

C.C. Gray is planning to release a succession of singles ahead of a debut album called Very Long Chair, release date TBA. Gray played all of the music on the new single himself, aside from the keys and drums.

“I don’t intend to sound like a particular era of music or play a particular genre, I just want to make songs that excite me the way my favorite musicians excite me,” Gray says.

It’s still early on of course. But it’s always cool to see the a musical family tree sprout new leaves. C.C. Gray’s “If You Dare” is out now (listen below).

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