Georgia’s Blackberry Smoke sounds and looks as if they have stepped straight out of America’s reverberant Southern rock scene of the 1970s.
Long hair? Check. Country and blues-drenched rock with a Southern flair? Check. Loud? Oh, yeah.
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Check out Blackberry Smoke when they make their Bristol debut during the 20th Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion on Saturday, Sept. 11. They’ll stand tall and rock hard from the State Street Stage, several Jimmie Rodgers strides from where the famed Bristol Sessions occurred in 1927.
“Man, I’ve had so many of those moments down through the 20-year history of this band,” said Charlie Starr, lead singer and co-founder of Blackberry Smoke. “I can say, man, pinch me.”
For instance, there was one of many times when Starr encountered ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons on the road. He’s Starr’s favorite guitarist, a thought not lost on Gibbons.
“I sat with him once when we were on the road, and we passed the guitar back and forth, and that was about the coolest experience in my life,” Starr said. “He gave me the guitar. Man, it’s great. If I leave this world with nothing else, I’ve got that.”
Time passed in the form of years before such perks landed in Blackberry Smoke’s lap. Two albums, 2003’s “Bad Luck Ain’t No Crime” and 2009’s “Little Piece of Dixie,” preceded their eventual breakthrough.
“The years before that,” Starr said, “we were driving around this beautiful country in a van, eating bologna sandwiches, making $200 a show and loving it. We loved it because we were free and doing our thing.”
Then along came 2012 and their album, “The Whippoorwill.” Heads whiplashed, ears perked up, and whatever gate that wraps this country opened wide.
“It started to catch on,” Starr said. “I remember playing this club in North Carolina, and wow, there was a line around the building. Who were they here to see? Oh, they were here to see us. I don’t take it for granted. The first time you play a show and they are here to see you, hey, man, you might be doing something right.”
Blackberry Smoke did something right in simply being themselves. But as with the architects of rock ’n’ roll, their sound embodies all kinds of music, including country.
“That’s a huge piece of the puzzle, traditional country music and bluegrass, and that comes from my side of the family, as it were,” Starr said. “Growing up where we did, it was a big part.”
As a kid, Starr said he was exposed to rock’s AC/DC as well as country’s Waylon Jennings.
“Then there were bands — Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band,” Starr said, “who all blurred the lines.”
No impediments. As heard on their latest album, “You Hear Georgia,” Blackberry Smoke creates music they want to hear. That’s why some songs register more as country while others are from the realms of rock or blues.
Freedom rings its bell of liberty throughout Blackberry Smoke’s music.
“That’s it in a nutshell,” Starr said. “We never really had anyone come along and say, ‘Hey, if you write songs like this, you’ll get popular.’ We’re definitely blessed in that we’ve always had control of the music we make.”
Blackberry Smoke rates as unapologetically loud onstage, rocking on records and honest when they sing. Heritage dances with truth deep within their infectious grooves.
“If you don’t like Blackberry Smoke’s music, the only people you have to blame is us,” Starr said. “The only people who thought it up was us. What you see is what you get.”