There’s also a sense of familiarity with “Wish in One Hand”, the bridge sounding remarkably similar to “Shakin’ Hands With the Holy Ghost” from previous album The Whippoorwill. Some simple chords and notes flesh out the songs and sometimes, that’s all that’s ever needed. “Woman in the Moon” adds an acoustic flair, Brit Turner’s drums taking centre stage whilst the rest of the band takes things into the background. With “Living in the Song”, it’s a wistful look at the harsh realities of life and the regrets that come with it but still manages to force a smile on your face, the music playing on the sombre efforts with Starr’s crooning. Yet, it’s the sombre offerings where the Atlanta boys shine best. Title track “Holding All the Roses” marries their country and rock influences together with blistering guitar solo and a great bluegrass breakdown which falls neatly into place.
Guitars wail and crunch in equal measure.
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While previous albums have been upbeat, raucous affairs, this one takes things down a notch or two, many songs ambling at a slower pace with a smattering of grittier, harder songs for good measure. There’s no sound of the band crumbling under the hype or going through the motions, they just have better albums, plain and simple.Ĭharlie Starr howls and drawls his way through his vocal duties whilst spitting gleefully on “Payback’s a Bitch”, one of the highlights of the album. Instead what we’ve got is an album which falls short of the mark yet is still great in its own right. Expectations I thought would be shattered. Produced by Brendan O’Brien (the man who worked the desk for AC/DC’s Black Ice), expectations were high.
![blackberry smoke holding all the roses blackberry smoke holding all the roses](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/i32TzMQmoE8/maxresdefault.jpg)
So naturally, Holding All the Roses was a shoe-in for me to get. Since then, there’s been another Glasgow gig and I’ve managed to nab their other two albums and their new live album. I left that show open-mouthed, completely blown away by the quality of performance. After a feature roughly a year ago and a few people heading along to their gig at the O2 ABC in February, I thought “screw it”, decided to be a sheep and bought a ticket for myself and got ahold of the first album. Blackberry Smoke are a fairly recent musical discovery.