Charlie Starr, center, is lead singer and guitarist in throwback Southern rockers Blackberry Smoke. (Photo by Robb D. Cohen/Invision/AP)More Info
If you go › What: Blackberry Smoke› When: 6:30 p.m.› Where: Coke Stage
It’s always nice to see deserving bands climbing the ranks, rising up from smaller stages and dingy venues to larger spotlights and higher profiles. Good work deserves to be rewarded, after all.
That musical truism basically sums up how I feel about Atlanta’s Southern rockers Blackberry Smoke. Four years ago, I was hanging out with them backstage before their Riverbend debut on the Bud Light Stage. They had attracted a crowd of thousands, suggesting that, despite it being their first show at the festival, there was really only one other stage at the event that could properly accommodate their growing fan base.
Tonight, they’re back for Round Two, and this time, Friends of the Festival wisely chose to place them on the biggest pedestal available as the early evening headliner on the Coke Stage. Whatever misgivings I might have about the quality of the sound on the stage, it’s nice to see a band’s talent being properly recognized.
To the uninitiated, Blackberry Smoke are a kind of musical anachronism. They’re Southern rockers who look like they’ve been yanked straight out of the ’70s, from their mutton chops and long hair to chicken-fried songs that sound contemporary to pillar genre acts like the Marshall Tucker Band, Molly Hatchet and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
It’s feel-good, down-home rock that is completely in-sync with the intended mood of an outdoor Southern music festival like Riverbend, and I can’t wait to hear them again. Don’t believe me? Blackberry Smoke’s “Good One Comin’ On” should more than convince you.
I’ve spoken with a lot of bands over the years, and there are many who treat touring like some kind of necessary evil to deliver them to riches and celebrity. I can’t stand those artists because they have utterly lost touch with the joy that made them slip on their guitar straps in the first place.
Just before he kicked things off four years ago, however, Blackberry Smoke lead singer Charlie Starr said something that showed that, despite the band’s star being on the rise, he was still getting out of bed for the right reasons.
“Playing the radio and TV stuff is work,” he said with a grin that split his trademark mutton-chop sideburns. “This is fun; this is the reward.”
I, for one, am glad to have them back.
Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.