Since they formed in Atlanta, Georgia back in 2000, Blackberry Smoke have become one of the leading country rock bands in the business, attracting fans across the world with their full-throttle live shows and classic yet fresh sound.
They released their debut album, ‘Bad Luck Ain’t No Crime’, in 2003 and have since gone on to record a further six LPs – including 2015’s ‘Holding All The Roses’, the first independently released album to top the Billboard Country Albums chart in the modern era, which they repeated with ‘Like An Arrow’ in 2016. Now they’re about to launch their eighth record ‘Be Right Here’, the follow-up to 2021’s ‘You Hear Georgia’ which sees them once again working with legendary producer Dave Cobb.
Ahead of the album release, I caught up with Paul and Charlie from the band on their recent visit to London (where they were presenting at the UK Americana Awards) to chat about the record, their love for audiences here, which song they wish they’d written and what else is in the pipeline for 2024.
Welcome back to the UK!
Both: Thank you!
Charlie: We’re glad to be back.
This is your third trip over here in 12 months – what is it that keeps you coming back?
Paul: We love you guys! [laughs] We miss y’all.
Is there anything you find particularly special about UK audiences? Maybe certain songs they react to or things like that?
Charlie: I mean, UK audiences are special, in that they like what we do.
Paul: That’s a good match [chuckles]
You’re also coming back again here for your latest tour in September. What can people coming to see you at those shows expect?
Charlie: New songs. New songs and old songs.
Speaking of new songs – your latest album ‘Be Right Here’ is out tomorrow. What can you tell us about that?
Paul: We’re excited.
Charlie: I mean, we’ve been sitting on it for a year, so we’re excited for the world to hear it.
Paul: Yeah, it’s been burning a hole in our pockets for about a year, so we’re excited to get it out.
Has that been a strange experience, knowing you’ve got the album ready but not being able to put it out there yet?
Charlie: Yeah.
Paul: We’ve been waiting for vinyls to be manufactured, because the queue for vinyl now is so long. And we didn’t want a staggered release, like digital and then wait for vinyl. So we decided to wait until it was ready.
Are there any songs on the record you found particularly easy or particularly challenging in terms of the writing?
Charlie: No, I don’t think we play music that’s hard to play [chuckles].
Paul: Right.
Charlie: It was all a really enjoyable experience. Dave Cobb helps in that regard. He runs a very comfortable proceeding.
How was it working with Dave again on this project?
Charlie: He’s great. He’s so passionate about music, the process, and about the song also. But he’s also very opinionated. He’ll be like, “I don’t like that, let’s do something else”. Which is what you want.
Paul: Yeah, that’s what you want out of a producer.
Charlie: Obviously he doesn’t hold sway, it’s all an opinion, and if we do like it we outnumber him. But we do love him and you have to trust your producer implicitly, and we do.
With this album you also tracked it live as well. How do you feel that changes the process of making a record?
Charlie: Well we always track live but this time we also had all the gear in the room. We had drums, we had the amps, so it was literally like a rehearsal.
Paul: Yeah, it was with us in the circle.
Charlie: So it made it more like we were jamming in a living room. And I think I can hear it, when I listen to the record I can hear that closeness and that looseness.
Paul: Kind of like when we rehearse.
I also wanted to ask you about ‘Azalea’ which is the latest single released from the project. What can you tell us about that?
Charlie: That song is… Travis Meadows and I wrote that. He’s an old friend and I’ve been writing with him for a long time. It’s just a song that comes from the fatherhood experience, which is complicated.
And is there anything you’ve learnt from making the new record that you’re going to take forward into future projects?
Charlie: The only thing that I’ve been reminded, when we worked with Dave, is to not focus on perfection. There were so many instances where I would think, “Oh I need to redo that” and he’d go, “Why?!”
Paul: [laughs] Yeah. Totally.
Charlie: Like a guitar part or a vocal part, he’d be like, “That felt great, why the f*** would you wanna mess with that?” And it’s all about the idea of, well, was it good enough? And he’ll actually get his phone and play you an example of something that’s not perfect, something we love, like a Beatles song or a Stones song or a Zeppelin song. He’ll be like, “That’s not perfect.”
Paul: Yeah, it’s true.
Charlie: And we love it. He’s like, “why are you trying to make everything so damn perfect?”
Paul: It’s comfortable. He makes it comfortable and very sense of humour.
Charlie: He reminds us that music is human. It’s made by humans. It doesn’t have to be so mechanical.
Last time you were here was for The Long Road Festival back in August – how did you find that?
Charlie: Great. We were just talking about it actually. I’d love to do that one again.
Paul: Yeah, that was great. I loved it. Good experience, great to see different bands, atmosphere was great.
Was there anyone who particularly stood out to you while you were there?
Charlie: Margo Price. She’s amazing.
Paul: She kills it.
How do you find that festival experience compared to your own shows?
Charlie: Well it’s more hectic.
Paul: I love it. I mean, there’s a different kind of pressure. You just got to kind of get out of the way. The sets are shorter. But it’s so cool to get to spend some time around other touring musicians that are out doing the same things you’re doing. You can swap stories and experiences and have some conversations. And it gives us time to see some bands we’ve been looking forward to.
Charlie: It’s tough on the bands’ crew, because it makes them work so hard.
Paul: That’s true! [laughs]
Charlie: And I love ‘em for that, ‘cause it is a lot of work. But yeah, it’s great.
Are there any songs you’ve been particularly enjoying playing live recently?
Charlie: All the new ones, ‘cause that’s always a given. They’re the newest babies.
Paul: Yeah, it’s just fresh.
Have people been responding to any of the new songs in ways you maybe weren’t expecting?
Charlie: ‘A Little Bit Crazy’. Like I didn’t expect people to love that one as much. Well, let me rephrase that – it’s such a simple song that I didn’t expect people to react as strongly as they have.
And how do you find the process of building setlists for shows? Is that quite a challenge for you especially with releasing new music?
Charlie: It is. But it’s a pleasure. There’s nothing negative about it. It’s a challenge too, because there are people who wanna hear their favourite song, and you can’t always guess what that is. I’m guilty a lot of times of… well we change it up every night, so there’ll be people who are like, “You didn’t play this!” and we’re like, “well, we played it last night”. But if we did the same thing every night people wouldn’t wanna come back. It gets harder with each record ‘cause that’s another ten songs.
Paul: Yeah. I always thought it was really cool, like say we played a certain place he [Charlie] will write down the set list. We’ve had the set list we did last year and then we’ll get to the same place and we’ll have that [to refer to], which I think is cool.
You’ve been together as a band for over 20 years now. What is it that’s kept things fresh and exciting for you?
Charlie: I don’t know. I said earlier, if we knew that we could bottle it and sell it.
Paul: Yeah, we just do it. You just can’t not.
Do you feel that how you approach your music has changed over that time at all?
Charlie: Yeah, I think it’s evolved. I think all bands have a fingerprint and we’re true to our fingerprint, but there is evolution ‘cause there has to be. If I listen to our first album now I’m like, “wow, that’s us?” because it has evolved. But there are elements that are there too. So it has not strayed far.
What do you think that continuous thread – the ‘fingerprint’ – is for you as a band?
Charlie: I think it’s the balance of electric and acoustic. That’s always been there and is still there.
What’s still left on the bucket list for you in terms of people you’d want to work with, places you’d want to play and so on?
Charlie: Play with the Stones.
Paul: Yeah. That would be nice. [chuckles] Oh man.
Charlie: Play ‘Getaway Suspect’ together.
Paul: Yeah. We’ll tour with them too! [laughs]
Hey, you never know! Is there a song you’re particularly proud of from across your career?
Paul: All of ‘em.
Charlie: Yeah. My son asked me that just the other day. He’s 10, and he was like, “Dad, what’s your favourite song of Blackberry Smoke?” I was like, “All of ‘em. I can’t pick one.” My friend Travis Meadows, somebody asked him “do you think ‘Azalea’ is the best song he and I had ever written together?” He goes, “my favourite one is always the one that we’re working on because it’s like tending to a sick child”.
Paul: Yeah.
Charlie: So, it’s like who’s your favourite kid? The one I’m taking care of.
Paul: Trying to get it better.
And on the flipside to that – what song do you wish you’d written?
Charlie: Oh, ‘Amazing Grace’.
Paul: ‘Happy Birthday’! [laughs] Or ‘Every Breath You Take’.
What does the rest of 2024 look like for you at the moment?
Charlie: Just touring. Working.
Paul: Staying busy, which is good.
Have you started thinking about the next album yet at all?
Charlie: Not yet.
Paul: We’re just excited to get out there and play this one. But probably by the end of the year.
Blackberry Smoke’s new album, ‘Be Right Here’, is out on 16th February 2024 on 3 Legged/Thirty Tigers.
See Blackberry Smoke live on tour in the UK this September – tickets on sale now at https://www.blackberrysmoke.com/pages/tour:
Monday 9th September – O2 Academy, Glasgow
Tuesday 10th September – O2 Academy, Edinburgh
Thursday 12th September – O2 Apollo, Manchester
Friday 13th September – O2 Academy, Birmingham
Saturday 14th September – Eventim Apollo, London
