“Inspiration comes from so many different places,” Starr says. “Flesh And Bone” explores the conundrum of temptation “Run Away From It All” is about seizing the day and trying to leave troubles behind and “Nobody Gives A Damn” cautions about letting external achievements such as an attractive partner or a hit song go to one’s head. I think everybody is hoping and looking for something better right now.”Īccordingly, Find A Light’s lyrics portray characters weighed down by the pressures of everyday life. “I thought, ‘What headspace is humanity in as a whole?’ That’s pretty hard to argue with that. “Most of our albums have been named either for a song on the album or a lyric, and this time I didn’t want to do that,” Starr says. The record sounds heavier than other albums in fact, Starr characterizes the churning, scorched-blues album opener, “Flesh And Bone,” as “maybe the heaviest song we’ve ever recorded.” The title has deep significance to the record’s overarching themes. Within Blackberry Smoke’s catalog, Find A Light is distinctive in several notable ways. I love the fact that our records are sort of a ride, with different types of songs and different vibes.”
“My favorite albums through the years are built that way, too. “That’s one of my favorite things about Blackberry Smoke albums-there’s a lot of variety,” Starr says. Rich instrumental flourishes-keening fiddle, solemn organ and bar-band piano boogie-add further depth and resonance. Songs hew toward easygoing roots-rock (“Run Away From It All”) and Southern rock stomps (“The Crooked Kind”), as well as stripped-down acoustic numbers (“I’ve Got This Song”) and bruising alt-country (“Nobody Gives A Damn”). (For good measure, the latter also topped Billboard’s Americana/Folk album chart.)įind A Light, Blackberry Smoke’s sixth studio album, doubles down on diversity. This fluidity has paid off handsomely, in the form of two Billboard chart-topping country albums, 2015’s Holding All The Roses and 2016’s Like An Arrow. Since emerging from Atlanta in the early ‘00s, the quintet-vocalist/lead guitarist Charlie Starr, guitarist/vocalist Paul Jackson, bassist/vocalist Richard Turner, drummer Brit Turner and keyboardist Brandon Still-has become known for a singular sound indebted to classic rock, blues, country and folk. It feels good it's just that chuggin' rock 'n' roll thing.Pigeonholing Blackberry Smoke has never been easy. They loved that type of American rock 'n' roll, not to mention Status Quo and the Georgia Satellites and all these bands. There have been tons of bands over the years, the Stones being one, they were as well known for playing Chuck Berry tunes in the beginning as they were their own. That comes from Chuck Berry and the architects of rock 'n' roll - Chuck Berry and Little Richard and Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis - and they were taking that from rhythm and blues when it migrated from the south up to Chicago, and they added drums and electric instruments. Rock 'n' roll bands even don't really play three-cord rock 'n' roll songs.
That kind of thing feels good to me it's that boogie-woogie thing, and there's not a lot of that that goes on these days. The funny thing, there's a song on the album called 'Rock and Roll Again,' and it's really just a three-chord rock 'n' roll song - a simple three chord. It's all in what people find in it for themselves, I guess.