Blackberry Smoke - Holding All the Roses (Deluxe Edition) '2013/2015

Tracks list

Georgia rock quintet Blackberry Smoke could write the book on how to "slow
build" a career. Since 2000, singer/guitarist Charlie Starr, guitarist Paul
Jackson, keyboard player Brandon Still, and brothers Brit and Richard Turner on
drums and bass, respectively, have played in excess of 250 dates a year in funky
honky tonks, rock clubs, and on festival stages on both sides of the Atlantic,
learning how to write songs in the process. Holding All the Roses is their
Rounder debut, the follow-up to 2012's killer The Whippoorwill. It was recorded
in less than two weeks, during a brief touring respite, with producer -- and
Georgia native -- Brendan O'Brien (AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam). While
it might startle longtime fans, there are no sprawling jams on this set -- all
12 tunes are under five minutes. Instead, Holding All the Roses showcases the
band's tightness and their considerable development as rock & roll songwriters.
While the first single, "Rock & Roll Again," is down in the vein of their
earlier work, it's a bridge to the present: Starr's voice struts and guitars
boil. It feels like a young Dave Edmunds backed by the Outlaws. On "Let Me Help
You (Find the Door)," Starr's grainy, soulful voice moves heaven and earth,
carried by twin guitars crashing into the rhythm section's wall. The title track
is a screaming stomp with blazing Southern guitar rock threaded with hot
bluegrass flatpicking in late-'70s hard-jamming fashion. "Woman in the Moon"
joins Southern psych with country rock. Still's B-3 and electric piano, guest
Ann Marie Simpson's layered violins, and Blackjack Billy on backing vocals add
spacy textures to solid grooves. "Wish in One Hand" is a floor-stomping, hard
rock boogie with a singalong refrain colored by smoking twin guitar leads. The
swaggering "Payback's a Bitch" uses the riff "Dear Prudence" in heavy fashion,
marrying it to blues rock crunch. "Lay It All on Me," with acoustic guitar,
pedal steel, and slide guitars alongside the rhythm section and B-3, weaves
honky tonk to backporch swing to Texas R&B. "No Way Back to Eden" is
exceptionally crafted. It uses country, folk-blues, and roots rock. One can hear
trace influences from many sources, but the song's character and imagination are
all Blackberry Smoke's. The band's writing prowess has evolved almost beyond
measure here. Anthemic closer "Fire in the Hole" recalls the band's live sound
wrapped inside a fat, slippery hook with a riff that is equal parts Lynyrd
Skynyrd, early Aerosmith, and the James Gang. When an indie band gets a decent
recording budget and teams with a big-name producer, often as not they blow it.
Not these guys: their confidence matches their ability and it shows. Holding All
the Roses delivers on every promise Blackberry Smoke have made to themselves and
their fans. This is the record that could -- and should -- expand their base
exponentially.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Blackberry Smoke - Let Me Help You (Find the Door) (3:04) 
1.02 - Blackberry Smoke - Holding All the Roses (3:17) 
1.03 - Blackberry Smoke - Living in the Song (3:24) 
1.04 - Blackberry Smoke - Rock and Roll Again (2:50) 
1.05 - Blackberry Smoke - Woman in the Moon (4:39) 
1.06 - Blackberry Smoke - Too High (3:12) 
1.07 - Blackberry Smoke - Wish in One Hand (3:10) 
1.08 - Blackberry Smoke - Randolph County Farewell (1:17) 
1.09 - Blackberry Smoke - Payback's a Bitch (4:20) 
1.10 - Blackberry Smoke - Lay It All on Me (3:10) 
1.11 - Blackberry Smoke - No Way Back to Eden (4:35) 
1.12 - Blackberry Smoke - Fire in the Hole (3:47) 
1.13 - Blackberry Smoke - Too High (Acoustic) (3:04) 
1.14 - Blackberry Smoke - Living in the Song (Acoustic) (3:23) 
1.15 - Blackberry Smoke - Woman in the Moon (Acoustic) (4:35) 
1.16 - Blackberry Smoke - Lay It All on Me (Acoustic) (3:10) 
1.17 - Blackberry Smoke - Let Me Help You (Find the Door) [Acoustic] (3:04) 
1.18 - Blackberry Smoke - Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards) [Acoustic] (3:31)

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