Leftover 2015 CD Reviews - Blackberry Smoke - Holding All The Roses

Time for some original CD review content for the board.

Blackberry Smoke

Holding All The Roses

Rounder Records - 2015

http://www.blackberrysmoke.com

Fairly or not, Blackberry Smoke has been tagged with the line "Too Country for Rock and Roll, Too Rock and Roll For Country. The band certainly doesn't shy away from the association, but you have to wonder if it is true or not. Of course after listening to Holding All The Roses, the only thing that I thought was, "Does it really matter how you classify the music?"

As the band mixes rock, country and blues they churn out some amazing songs that simply deserve to be heard by as wide an audience as possible. In fact, aside from the rather boring "Woman in the Moon", every song on the album is outstanding.

When the band is rocking out on songs like "Let Me Help You (Find The Door)", "Payback's A Bitch" or "Fire In The Whole", they build the songs with an aggressive edge. When you hear that down home country twang shine through on songs like the title track, "Too High" or "Lay It All On Me", it comes with an air of authenticity rather than affectation. There's even a tasty little instrumental called "Randolph County Farewell", though when I first saw the title of that song on the CD package I was hoping it was a song with lyrics given the images said title conjured in my head.

But it isn't all just rocking out and country vibes here. The band is top notch and I love listening to singer Charlie Starr's voice. Starr also wrote most of the material on the disc as well. Lyrically, the album has some outstanding moments as well. The rollicking "Living in the Song" has a fantastic chorus: "It's like livin' in the words of a song / I've been runnin' from the hurt for too long / I don't know how to say I was wrong / All I know is how to be gone".

For me, the song that really grabbed me the most lyrically (and musically for that matter) was "Wish In One Hand". The band rocks out on the track, but also mixes in a rebellious sounding country feel at the same time. There's an edge to the entire set of lyrics and the chorus (which I'll let you discover on your own HERE) manages to be both poignant and hilarious.

Simply put, Holding All The Roses finds Blackberry Smoke enlivening the melding of both rock and country to a point that it no longer matters how you classify their music. You just need to listen, because the band, it would seem, is holding all the cards as well when it comes the future of the new age of "Southern Rock".

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on March 31, 2016 at 8:26pm

Well you know I enjoyed this review. I am a big fan of this band. So I certainly agree that it's a terrific album. My only disagreement with your thoughts is on the song Woman In The Moon. I think it's a really cool song lyrically and I like the keyboards (although I'd like to hear even more) in the song. As a matter of fact, that's my biggest gripe with the album is the lack of keyboard work, which was an amazing feature of the previous album.

Did you ever pick up The Whippoorwill?