Charlie Starr tells how Fender Champs and Princetons allowed Blackberry Smoke to play together in the studio to make their blazing-hot new album, Be Right Here.
BY ALAN PAUL
AS BLACKBERRY SMOKE recorded their eighth studio album, Be Right Here(3 Legged Records/Thirty Tigers), the sessions developed a greater sense of gravity and intensity. The cause? Drummer Brit Turner was battling brain cancer. But as guitarist Charlie Starr says, Turner’s illness had the effect of making the sessions at Nashville’s famed RCA Studio A more fun and memorable.
It was so good for us to be making music with Brit as he was undergoing treatment, Starr says. I think that whole thing really brought us closer, just knowing that one of our brothers needed love and support. I think it gave the record some urgency.
The band always records live, Starr says, but usually with the drummer in a different room. In this case, however, producer Dave Cobb pushed them to use smaller amps, which allowed everyone to play together in one room, and that ended up being a key decision.
You can’t work that way in every studio, but RCA A is large enough and there’s enough room to spread out and not bleed into each other’s mics, Starr says. “And though that wasn’t the intent, it made a big difference to stand there and watch Brit play.
In addition to Starr and Turner, Blackberry Smoke includes Brit’s brother Richard on bass, percussionist Preston Holcomb, keyboardist Brandon Still and guitarists Paul Jackson and Benji Shanks. The band uses the three guitars with notable technique and restraint, creating weaving lines and textures that enhance and undergird the songs without overwhelming them. We caught up with Starr to discuss Be Right Hereand the current state of all things Blackberry.
You guys have a pair of brothers in Brit and Richard, but the band has been together for over 20 years now, an admirably long run that kind of makes you all brothers.
We formed in 2001, but I started playing with Britt and Richard in ’97 in Buffalo Nickel, which was the band of the excellent singer/songwriter Gary Stier. That was more or less Americana music, and as we were all getting ready to move on, I realized that we have a special wobble together. It was as simple as saying, I like the way my guitar sounds with your drums and bass,” and we all agreed and wanted to try and do something together. My songs were based around more muscular riffs — I guess you could call it southern rock — than what we were doing in Buffalo Nickel, and we all
