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The setlist changes every night, and that’s a good start, I think.” “We spent years playing bars, but then we would turn around and go and open a big show for Skynyrd, or ZZ Top or Zac Brown but when it’s your name on the ticket and you look out and see a line of people around the club, you think, ‘It’s starting to work.’ Then it’s just trying to keep it fresh. It’s truly a word-of-mouth campaign now with social media being what it is, that’s a way bigger mouth than it was in 1970 for the Allman Brothers, but while a tweet is a great way to spread the word, the proof is still in the pudding. You describe your following as “organic.” Could you explain what you mean by that?Ĭharlie: “It means it’s not people that heard our music on the radio. I knew he had a beautiful harmony vocal - which is very important in Blackberry Smoke, that bluegrass thing - and he was a great guitar player, so I called him and he came to Atlanta, and that was it.” "Then I knew Paul from years ago, from a cover band. "When it’s your name on the ticket and you look out and see a line of people around the club, you think ‘It’s starting to work’" - Charlie Starr Those songs were Blackberry Smoke songs: Sanctified Woman, Testify.
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"The three of us knew we had something that really clicked, and I’d written some songs that this guy didn’t wanna hear, so it was just a natural place for us to land. It was this singer-songwriter guy in Atlanta and we were his band, but he had an agenda that didn’t seem to include us.
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How did the idea for Blackberry Smoke come together?Ĭharlie: “I was playing in another band with Brit and Richard, our drummer and bass player.
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(Image credit: Will Ireland/Future) Sowing the Blackberry seeds So I don’t know - it was just in me somewhere.” Prev of 7 Next Prev of 7 Next I picked a guitar up and started going for it. My mom re-married, and my biological father’s family - I didn’t grow up anywhere near them - they were in Philadelphia, but they were all musicians. It was a Heit Deluxe Mosrite copy, and he’d painted it like Eddie Van Halen’s with all the stripes. "So I bought an electric guitar from a friend for $25. Then, when I became 11 or 12 years old, none of my friends liked that. I don’t remember there not being a guitar in the room. What were your roots, musically, and when did the guitar come into the picture?Ĭharlie: “My dad is a bluegrass guitar player and singer, so I banged around on his guitars. We sat down with Charlie and Paul to discuss the band’s beginnings, the future of Southern rock and how, with help from Brendan O’Brien, they may finally have an album worthy of their live reputation. The Southern rockers embrace a wide variety of bluegrass, gospel and heavy-rock heroes, while politely shouldering comparisons to frequent tour partners the Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd. So I don’t know - it was just in me somewhere" - Paul Jackson "I picked a guitar up and started going for it. You’ll find no liberal Live And Dangerous-style overdubs - just a rock band that has been playing together for 15 years and sound tighter than a duck’s butt. It figures, then, that guitarists/vocalists Charlie Starr and Paul Jackson represent two of the finest players TG’s had the pleasure of recently witnessing: Just listen to this year’s live record Leave A Scar for evidence of that. (Image credit: Will Ireland/Future) Introductionīlackberry Smoke formed in 2000 and have spent most of the intervening time on either a tour bus or a stage.