Be Right Here

Once again working with Dave Cobb, the producer who is the gold standard for roots music in the 2010s, Blackberry Smoke dont attempt any new tracks on Be Right Here, their eighth studio album. Settling into a Dixie-fried groove created from equal parts soul and album rock, Blackberry Smoke still sound recognizably Southern, but theyre not adhering to the gospel of Skynyrd and the Allmans as closely as they once did. On Be Right Here, the band is relaxed and sunny, threading in enough overblown bloozy guitar to recall the heyday of the Black Crowes, when the group unabashedly brought the sounds of the 70s into the 90s. Blackberry Smoke arent upstarts at this stage, nor do they have any of the underground pedigree of the Crowes: theyre traditionalists through and through, happy to revive and sustain the weathered, rugged sounds of rock into new generations. Cobb helps capture the groups easy chemistry -- they can slide into a slow-burner after a rave-up without missing a beat -- but the trick to the groups success is that they can write songs as well as riffs. "Dig a Hole" has a big, funky swagger, "Be So Lucky" rides its chunky tremolo riff into the sunset, and "Other Side of the Light" is a sunkissed open-road anthem worthy of the Marshall Tucker Band. These tunes provide Be Right Here with a solid foundation to endure multiple plays, but its immediately appealing upon first spin thanks to that burnished Cobb production. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine