Blackberry Smoke
Bad Luck Ain't No Crime
© 2003 Blackberry Smoke (664980017122)
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Too Rock for Country, Too Country for Rock
tracks
- 1 Testify
- 2 Sanctified
- 3 Another Chance
- 4 Nothin for You
- 5 Normaltown
- 6 Train Rollin
- 7 Angeline
- 8 Sure Was Good
- 9 Scare the Devil
- 10 Muscadine
- 11 Freeborn Man
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BLACKBERRY SMOKE
Charlie Starr: vocals, guitar
Paul Jackson: guitar, vocals
Richard Turner: bass, vocals
Brit Turner, drums
"We don't pull any punches about calling this Southern rock because that's what it is", says Blackberry Smoke frontman Charlie Starr. "It's what we think new Southern rock should sound like." Starr, guitarist Paul Jackson, bassist Richard Turner and drummer Brit Turner are indeed sons of the South, but their considerable chops recall The Swanee River Boys and The Stanley Brothers as well as Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers.
"We love all kinds of music our CD collection in the van is extremely diverse", Charlie continues, "You can hear a bluegrass influence on our harmonies. We all grew up listening to that kind of music, and I started singing in church, so I think a little gospel flavor filters through, too. We like to mix it up and take some chances." Still, discerning ears will detect a strain of Bon Scott in Charlie's upper register. "Our music is probably harder driving than what you'd call classic Southern rock," he concedes, "especially in the guitar and drum sounds." In fact, this ain't no gospel, this ain't no bluegrass, this ain't no fooling around: Blackberry Smoke is balls-out rock and roll. The response of fans to the live performances on Bad Luck Ain't No Crime, the band's debut disc, is thrilling confirmation of that. Studio tracks "Testify" and "Sanctified Woman" may be attracting the most attention at rock radio, but these rough-and-ready versions of originals "Scare The Devil" and "Muscadine" and the standard "Freeborn Man" may better capture the essence of Blackberry Smoke.
"We recorded those during the motorcycle rally in Sturgis [South Dakota], at The Full Throttle Saloon," Charlie informs. "We took an RV, parked it behind the stage and just lived there for a week. We opened for everyone who came through. It's outdoors and the weather was beautiful. There's no charge to get in and lots of booze flowing. What that audience sounded likewe couldn't have asked for better live recordings. Technically, there are some warts, but the energy was so high that we didn't care. We aren't brain surgeons it ain't pretty sometimes, but it sure does feel good." Even when Charlie's singing about hard times, there is joy in the music. You can¹t help thinking that he, Paul, Richard and Brit were born to play together.
The road to Blackberry Smoke winds through Lanett, Alabama, where Charlie was raised, LaGrange, Georgia, where he met Paul, and Atlanta, longtime stomping grounds to brothers Richard and Brit. Growing up in Lanett, a textile mill town ringed by fields of corn, peas and butterbeans, Charlie began his training as a singer before he could talk. His mother's uncle is Bluegrass Hall Of Famer Buford Abner, lead singer for the aforementioned Swanee River Boys; great uncle Merle Abner sang bass. "My dad has played guitar and sung bluegrass my whole life," Charlie adds, "I spent a lot of years going to bluegrass festivals. Every weekend we¹d drive to Virginia or Kentucky. It was a fun thing to do. When I got to be a teenager, I said, "I don't want to play this kind of music; I want to play Smoke On The Water." But after a while, I think you always come back to whatever sparked your interest in music in the first place." He vividly remembers his mother singing along to the radio, with The Rolling Stones, The Faces, The Beatles and Bob Dylan among her favorites. He notes that his own idols range more toward Hank Williams of whom he says, "I don't think a better songwriter has ever walked the earth" and Steve Earle, but the Bad Luck Ain't No Crime track "Normaltown" is indisputably reminiscent of the Beatles' psychedelic awakening. Charlie recollects: "When I was growing up, we¹d all sit around the piano singing, and I'd grab my dad¹s guitar every time someone put it down. About the time I turned six, I guess he figured he¹d better get me one before I broke his."
The boy learned how to play on his own after a few lessons from Dad. He graduated to the electric guitar in his teen years. By then Charlie was getting into the Allmans, Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot and 38 Special, whose material he calls "a little more pop, riding-around-in-your-Camaro stuff." He naturally gravitated toward other rock musicians. "Paul and I have been buddies for a long time," he says. "He's always been a great guitar player. We¹d go down to Atlanta to see bands. There's a couple of late-night watering holes where musicians would convene after concerts, and that's where we got to know Brit and Richard. We kept saying we should all jam and when we finally did, there it was; the band just kind of fell together." Blackberry Smoke's creative approach remains a collaborative one. "Sometimes I'll come in with a basic idea, just play some chords and a melody on an acoustic and a song will grow from that," Charlie explains. "But most of the time I'll write with Paul we live within 15 minutes of each other or we'll be in rehearsal and just start jamming on something and magic will happen."
The band members have a similarly easygoing, give-and-take personal rapport. Charlie says he knows it¹s a cliché, but he nonetheless attests: "We're like a little family, like four brothers. We all just get along really well. We've all been in cover bands, and in every cover band there¹s somebody ya hate. There's nobody in this band like that unless I'm the guy and they haven't told me! We could never stay on the road for 40 days if we weren't laughing and having a good time. All our dads were in the service and they taught us respect for other people. Hell, Brit and Richard's dad is a retired Air Force colonel; they really walked the line." During their travels, the Blackberry Smoke boys have headlined all over the U.S. and opened for a slew of rock acts. They've toured with Jackyl Jackyl's Jesse James Dupree produced Bad Luck Ain't No Crime and have even shared the stage with Blackfoot, 38 Special and Lynyrd Skynyrd, at Dallas' Smirnoff Music Centre (capacity: 20,000). The band got their name from another likeminded artist, former Black Crowes' singer-songwriter Chris Robinson.
The name has a bittersweet quality, as do many of Charlie's lyrics. Sometimes there's only room for the bitter, like in "Scare The Devil Outta You": "Keep yourself on your side/ And I¹ll keep me on mine/ Keep yourself to yourself/ And we'll get along just fine/ You say the devil made you do it with a smile/ Raising hell and howling at the moon/ Well I'm gonna put your ass back in line/ I'm gonna scare the devil outta you"; and sometimes it's just plain sweet, as on "Muscadine": "Muscadine, my girl's sweeter than a muscadine/ Muscadine, sweetest berry hangin' on the vine." But more often than not, Charlie manages to navigate the murky but evocative waters between these two emotional territories. On "Sanctified Woman," he sings: "I went lookin' for a sanctified woman/ She's the only kind of woman I was hopin' to find." He does find her, "livin' by the highway in a pink doublewide." But in the chorus he moans, "Can't you see me go up in flames/Can't you hear me screamin' your name/ I need some redemption today." And later, he confesses: "I don¹t even know/ What we¹re gonna do, where we¹re gonna go/ But we got to go somewhere (cause we sure ain't got no home." An ambivalence about the idea of home also surfaces in "Normaltown," where the singer reasons, "In Normaltown they say/ A man can make his life/ Find a Normal girl to make his wife/ Normaltown is home/ I guess it's just as well," but then he destroys the illusion of nostalgia, spitting, "Now you know why this is a living hell." "Angeline" connotes a tumultuous romance. The protagonist says of his wife, whom he calls "my valentine": "She had enough money to get herself out of town/ Next thing I know she¹s New Orleans bound / I stay home and try to make ends meet/ She's turnin' tricks down on Royal Street." He laments in the song's refrain, "Oh Angeline, where have you gone?" But despite the misery she has clearly caused, he wants her back, pleading: "If you see that girl out walkin' the wrong way/ Turn her around and send her back my way."
This pervasive bittersweetness is put into context in songs like "Testify" and "Sure Was Good," the first line of which is "Bad luck ain't no crime." Charlie goes a long way toward summing up his worldview with lines like: "Wanna testify About the things I've seen/ Wash my hands but they never comeclean/ Testify some win some lose/ Everybody's gonna have to stand accused." Likewise, the banjo-inflected "Sure Was Good" demonstrates a hilosophical acceptance of life¹s ups and downs: "Sometimes easy, sometimes not/ Hope I did the best with what I got/ Sure was good."
These songs, like the rest of Bad Luck Ain't No Crime, represent the burnished-by-experience, no-bullshit, hard-won wisdom of the most enduring Southern rock. "Sometimes we shake our heads about what goes on in life and think, "Wow look at everything we've been through and seen people do and done ourselves," says Charlie. "But we always remember that no matter how bad it gets, someone's always got it worse, and that pretty much keeps our feet on the ground.
# # #
written by - JULIA RUBINER
reviews
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Loyal fan
author: sparkplugBBS is one of the best southern rock bands of all time!I have been following the guys for about ten years. They just get better and better each time I go to a show.The southern rock world better find a fire exstinguisher cause Blackberry Smoke is setting the world on fire and "Up In Smoke" Keep it up guys!
Southern Rock still kicks ass
author: soonergirlI saw them live with ZZTOP back in Sept. 07 they were great. I am a southernrock girl and i just love the album. I listen to it atleast once a week it never gets old! They were great live, I would definitely recommend going to see them if you ever get the chance.....Keep on Rock'n!
Real music
author: Larry EvansGreat music. A blend of many influences, lyrics that reach me
ROCK STILL LIVES
author: KEITH R. BOWMANCan't believe that this sound is not marketed main stream.Where are the true Rock stations where these Boys can show off their talent.Going to see them with Sister Hazel in Nashville.Should be a great show.
Bad Luck Aint No Crime
author: Gavin StewartSaw them live with ZZ Top in Hard Rock Florida, they were fantastic. This album does not have a bad song on it, needs a couple of listens but is great. Would love to see them live again. Best of Luck to them. Fan Club, Scotland.
Buy the cd, see them live
author: crossmanBought the CD. Played nonstop for days. Saw them live with ZZ Top. Played the cd some more. The CD has an 80s Georgia Satellites feel with a newer Buckcherry hardness, but also has a few softer songs. Live they kicked butt. Wished they had done a longer set. Crowd was starting to warm up and then their set was over. Live they have a more old school Skynyrd/Blackfoot sound. Great group. Wish them luck and hope they continue doing what they do so well.
awesome southern rock
author: swamprollOutstanding cd with Georgia Satellites and Lynyrd Skynyrd influences with a heavy metal sound.
- author: kevin scully
blackberry smoke badluck ain't no crime it's the only crime kickass southernrock great cd keep up the good work guys if you like lynyrd skynyrd a.brothers blackcrows you will like blackberry smoke.
Good R'N'R. An outstanding record
author: ELCROWLEYMix togheter in a cocktail shaker Black Crowes, Allman Bros ,Lynyrd Skynyrd and Buckcherry and you get Blackberry Smoke. This album is an outstanding piece of music. At the begining, you say "good record, but nothing more", but the more you listen it the more you like it and want it. Believe me, record is full of very good riffs. "Testify", "Scare the devil" and "Nothin For You" (what a riff) sounding like Black Crowes. "Normaltown" could be signed by Lynyrd Skynyrd,"Trainrollin" (SUPER) and "Muscadine" sound more like Buckcherry. Last 3 songs are live recorded and WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW, these guys play at same level than Black Crowes on their beginings. Only thing I don't like of this album is production. If this album would have had a better production we will be talking about a record to same level than Black Crowes.
ass kickin` music !
author: Al SchwarzThe finest, dirtiest,most ass kickin` piece of (southern) rock I´ve been listening to in a loooong time !!!
Blackberry Smoke is indefectibly aged, smooth as silk
author: "by Aaron Small" "Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles"(issue #78).Blackberry Smoke is indefectibly aged, smooth as silk, southern rock. Perfectly in stride with Lynyrd Skynyrd, .38 Special and The Four Horsemen, these four longhairs are all about traveling the country road, good times with girls and plenty of drinking. Touted by Brian Johnson of AC/DC as "a band that will never go hungry", Blackberry Smoke blends the boogie woogie and ballads like master distillers. Eight studio tracks and three live ones; this is music from well below the Mason-Dixon Line. Endearing jukebox faves, hot radio tunes and songs set for sitting on the old creaky porch - better than a heaping plate of Aunt Maude's down home cooking.......... 9.5 out of 10"
rockin great CD
author: davetattiesgreat southern rockin CD. Will be singing along for hours with the likes of testify, sanctified and train rollin.
"Bad Luck Ain’t No Crime” has what it takes...
author: Matteo Pinton/CathouseHere’s a Southern Rock band made of balls and muscles. The first release from these rockers, produced by Jesse Dupree, the man with the power saw, the leader of Jackyl. The sound is pure southern rock and roll and sounds like the big southern rock bands of the past. The lyrics are all over the place, and they ooze highways, railroads, tattoos whiskey brawls and women. They also are big on arrangements, all the way to the riff of “Working for the MCA” that concludes “Scare the Devil”. A full disk of southern boogie rock and roll with a couple of ballads thrown in. Eight songs in the studio and three forceful tracks recorded live at Sturgis, the “bikers paradise”.“Bad Luck Ain’t No Crime” has what it takes to become our favorite new Southern Rock record. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen such a large amount of pure expression of Southern Pride in a band. Cathouse http://www.cathouse.it/newsouth.htm
WMZK 104.1 FM
author: Nick Summers"Congradulations to BLACKBERRY SMOKE for securing the #6 spot on the top 100 most requested bands of 2003." Nick Summers
3-song EP by Blackberry Smoke
author: dmToday, I received a 3-song EP by Blackberry Smoke from Justin Crafton of The Dobro of Fire YahooGroup. I just popped it into my CD player, so I'm still on the first song ("Sanctified Woman") but so far, so good. Very southern-roots-rock. [Makes me kinda homesick for Texas.] Groovy. Think Marshall Tucker Band, Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc. If you're into that, definitely give these guys a look-see/listen-hear: www.blackberrysmoke.com update: All three songs ("Sanctified Woman," "Normal Town" and "Train Rollin") are Diva-Approved, my fave being "Normal Town." Check out Blackberry Smoke's debut, Bad Luck Ain't No Crime. -->
“Bad luck Ain’t No Crime”.
author: Simon“Bad luck Ain’t No Crime”. Its like meeting an old friend with new exciting tales to share.. That’s the best way for me to try to describe Blackberry Smokes new full CD “Bad luck Ain’t No Crime”. If you are new to their music I warn you this is a band you immediately love. It is awesome to finally be able to play a full CD of Blackberry Smoke, instead of having to wait for them to appear at the next local venue and nothing has been lost in the translation from live to cd, the same energy and charismatic songs have been wonderfully captured. I have to admit just getting the album I am more interested in the newer tracks, (I can already sing along to the three older songs from the mini cd.) and I am really impressed. “Testify” I loved from the get go, just a great rock anthem, wonderfully performed. “Another Chance” has a beautiful melody and lyrics like a prayer; “Angeline” is another gem, a sad story that will leave you with a tear in your beer. “Sure Was Good” the track the albums title was taken from, this song quickly grows on you and yes it lives up to its name It is an excellent display of the bands versatility and growth. The last three tracks are all live (recorded in South Dakota) and they show what a tight group this is, performing like they were in the studio, I particularly favor Scare the Devil (I seem to play it over and over.) I love this CD, it does not have a bad song on it, new listeners will be awed with such a strong line up of material, older listeners will be pleased with the new cuts and smile at the older favorites. Thank you BBS for such a great and strong release. Simon
Ecco una band di southern rock dotata di palle e muscoli.
author: cathouseCathouse http://www.cathouse.it/newsouth.htm Ecco una band di southern rock dotata di palle e muscoli. Opera prima per questi rockers della Georgia, un disco prodotto e mixato da Jesse Dupree, l’ uomo con la sega elettrica, il leader dei Jackill. L’ approccio di questi ragazzi al rock n’ roll è piu’ southern che mai ed i riferimenti ai grandi del passato abbondano. Abbondano nei testi, che trasudano highways, railroads, tatuaggi, whiskey risse e donne, ma abbondano anche negli arrangiamenti, fino a sfociare nel richiamo al riff di “Working For The Mca” che conclude “Scare the Devil”. Un grande disco di rockin boogie southern roll con un paio di ballads che colgono nel segno. Otto pezzi in studio e tre grintose tracce live registrate dal vivo al Sturgis, il paradiso dei bikers. “Bad luck ain’t no crime” ha tutti i crismi per diventare il nostro disco di rock sudista preferito degli ultimi tempi. Era davvero tanto che non vedevamo una tale dose di grinta e cazzuto orgoglio southern in una band. Matteo Pinton
Blackberry Smoke - Bad Luck Ain't No Crime (2003)
author: southern-rock.deBlackberry Smoke - Bad Luck Ain't No Crime (2003) Unglaublich! Als wenn es nicht reichen würde, dass man heutzutage Bands wie Alligator Stew, Laidlaw oder die Road Dawgs entdecken kann, die dem in die Jahre gekommenen Southern Rock mit Blues-Rock bis Hard-Rock Varianten neues Leben einhauchen, hier kommt gleich noch so eine Truppe! Blackberry Smoke kommen aus Atlanta, GA und beweisen auf dieser 11 Song Debüt-CD, dass die Szene dort lebt. 9 Eigenkompositionen gibt es, davon 3 Live-Songs, auf denen die Band auf den Spuren der Georgia Satellites (deren "Another Chance" sie als einen von 2 Songs covern), und der Four Horseman wandelt. Genialer Höhepunkt einer schmutzigen Rock'n Roll CD ist die Version des Outlaws-Klassikers "Freeborn Man", den die Band nahezu in alle Einzelteile zerlegt. Um die Zukunft des Rock muss einem mit Bands wie dieser nicht wirklich bange sein!