BLACKBERRY SMOKE : Be right here (2024)

Blackberry Smoke, that we always want to see as the youngsters of southern rock, has already given us their eighth studio album... I quote the magnificent "Be Right here", a title which makes us say that they are still there, while referring to the health problems of drummer Britt Turner. The up-and- coming group that was hitting European clubs in 2009 with their second LP “Little Piece of Dixie” in the bag is already a long way away! Since then, Blackberry Smoke has continued to grow,
delivering magnificent albums and live performances to the point of having become the group not to be missed! Dubbed by their colleagues (fathers?) Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers ZZTop or other Black Crowes and led by the incredible Charlie Starr who plays, sings and composes like no other.

Let's come to this new disc. Ten new compositions, with a production very close to the previous “You hear Georgia”.
So a very “roots” sound that smells of southern dust. Like its predecessors, the album hits the mark... Always inspired and never boring... As usual we oscillate between very rock with “Hammer and the nails” “Like it was yesterday” “Don't mind if I do” or even “Little bit crazy”, enhanced by the choirs of the Blackbettys and where Paul Jackson gives us an excellent guitar solo, more mid-tempo pieces “Be so lucky”, “Watchu know good”, a superb ballad with “Azalea”, or the captivating
“The other side of the light” (how well sings Charlie Starr on these two titles!). And to finish “Barefoot Angel” with its bluegrass aromas. So everyone will have their opinion on this album, is it the best? The least (very) good?

In any case Blackberry Smoke shows us once again that he is capable of releasing yet another opus without the slightest weakness in the compositions. Few groups can boast of such mastery, Stetson low as they say in the west... Uh...
In the south! See you on September 28 at the Olympia!

Manu Aeschbach

Translation : Y. Philippot-Degand