Blackberry Smoke-New Honky Tonk Bootlegs

Self-produced
2008

Georgia’s southern rock outfit Blackberry Smoke reached back into their roots, leaned back and churned out some whiskey and sweat soaked honky tonk with a whole of grit on these six tracks. They have composed some dirty and sad, twangy ramblings that will immediately soak into you. The best thing about this album and this style is how they pull and twist the absolute maximum ounce of emotion out of every note, beat and word. They now the meaning and the importance of inflection in the vocals and they have truly mastered patience in the music. The approach is from a style oh around the 1970’s and much further back. Yet they don’t stop there as they add their own boot heeled stamp by punch in finger bending southern rock solos that help make the total sound thick as molasses. Blackberry Smoke have poured out an album that just has all these little touches that lead to a very genuine sound that obviously came right from their heart and you easily identify that they love this style and wanted to create a complete package. Indeed they did, this isn’t always my favorite style yet this album is just spot on in so many ways. My favorite track is likely “Livin Hell” (and we get both a clean and dirty version) due to the matter of fact way in which they talk about misery yet you feel even more alive for having heard this song. Definitely an album that’s worth checking out.

http://www.myspace.com/blackberrysmoke