#holdingalltheroses

[jstanley1998-blog]

Holding All the Roses – A Thorn to Mainstream Music Too country to be rock? Yet too rock to be country? This is the definition commonly used to describe Blackberry Smoke, arguably Southern Rock’s hottest act since Lynyrd Skynyrd emerged in the early 1970’s. They’ve toured with the likes of Skynyrd and ZZ Top, as well as other huge names in country and southern rock to boot. Prior to the release of ‘Holding All the Roses’ in early 2015, Blackberry Smoke had made a name for themselves by touring almost constantly, as well as releasing 3 albums and an EP. To kick this off, it is worth noting that this album is most ‘produced’ of all Blackberry Smoke albums at the time of release. The band hired legendary producer Brendan O’ Brien (AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen etc), and this led to the album having a heavily, almost overproduced sound; there was less emphasis on the instruments individually, and it generally remixed in a more ‘pop rock’ style. Fans were split about this, as previous Blackberry Smoke albums have had a somewhat ‘raw’ quality, notably 2012’s ‘The Whippoorwill’. However, I, as the writer here, am a big fan of the likes of Meat Loaf, and Def Leppard, so I dig heavy production. I believe it makes for a better sonic experience, and with the case of Blackberry Smoke, THE LOUDER THE BETTER! The album artwork is also worth discussing. ‘Holding All the Roses’ is an analogy meaning ‘you’re the winner’. Just listening to the album, you may assume this is a reference from the band to the fact they finally are starting to hit the big top. However, the album cover and rear tell a different story. The front cover is a donkey adorned with roses; it has just won an event. But the background exhibits near empty stands, and nobody is looking; does anybody really care? And the rear cover of the album shows two unkempt, older hillbillies waving their roses in the air. These two are seemingly the only fans and supporters of the donkey, leading us to question whether it’s worth celebrating the donkey’s victory. This sarcastic display is a perfect set up for the album, particularly once you start digging into the lyrics. The first track off ‘Holding All the Roses’, ‘Let Me Help You Find the Door’ is the best example of straight up, loud anger on the album. Dripping with sarcasm and loaded with a guitar riff that could cause an earthquake, singer Charlie Starr belts out a protest to the music industry of today. He’s not gonna take any shit from anyone. ‘Why’s it got to be the same damn thing? Same damn song that everybody wants to sing… Same Sons of Bitches still rigging the game, they sell the same old faces with a brand-new name’. Admittedly, this is a rarity for Blackberry Smoke. They’ve managed to remain neutral and politically correct for their entire career, so a sudden outburst is, if anything, slightly out of character. Nevertheless, if they felt the need to write it, then something must be going on behind the scenes to encourage it. If anyone can find a more damning view on today’s chart music than this, then I owe them a drink. I challenge you. Continuing down the hard rockers aisle, we come to ‘Rock and Roll Again’. This is completely different to ‘Let Me Help You Find the Door’, though it retains the punch and attack from the first song. ‘Rock and Roll Again’ is a classic ‘man loves girl’ rock song, characterised by its thumping shuffle feel. Play this song, and close your eyes. It is almost as though you’re in 1977 watching Status Quo bash through their 3 most iconic chords. Yet open your eyes to the music video and you’re in a Southern American strip club. The music video caused a large amount of controversy among fans due to its heavy reliance upon nudity. Whilst Blackberry Smoke play on the stage of the club, nude cowgirls play with snakes and swings. Through all of this though, the video does have an element of humour, as we see when [insert spoiler alert here] the protagonist, a tattooed cowboy of about 35, tries to slap one of the strippers’ bum. This results in a bar fight (what American music video is complete without one?) during which he makes an escape. All in all, everything about this song is good fun, whatever your outlook. For those of you who are interested (as I’m sure you all are…), be sure to check it via the link provided link. ‘Wish in One Hand’ is one of my personal favourite tracks. Lyrically it is another brash dig at society. Its written about those among us who are loud, obnoxious and just want to be the centre of attention. Yeah, we all like a degree of attention, but this is about the kind of people you see on the front of gossip magazines. ‘You wish you could be everybody’s best friend, know the whole story from beginning to end’. Let’s be honest, we ALL know somebody like this! Musically this song is also a stand out on ‘Holding all the Roses’. The solo section features some beautiful twin guitar work, very reminiscent of the Allman Brothers Band with Duane Allman and Dickey Betts on guitar. The actual improvised solo part is equally mind-blowing. It almost feels like a different song. It doesn’t feel like a conventional solo section, with odd chords and notes regarding the original key. Throughout it though, Blackberry Smoke manage to keep their thrashing mood, and whilst it may feel a bit out of place, it works, and that’s Blackberry Smoke for ya. In my opinion, the most un-Blackberry Smoke song on the album must be the title track. ‘Holding All the Roses’ is a loud, relentless track. To the date the album was released, this was the heaviest track the band had ever laid down. Though saying this, it is tinged with a few bluegrass inspired licks. ‘Holding All the Roses’ is a bit of a musical oxymoron. The chorus is heavy and loud, yet the ‘middle 8’ is based on some chicken pickin’ acoustic guitar and a violin trading licks, and the actual guitar solo is huge. It sounds like Charlie is setting the fretboard on fire, and this is why I love the heavy production. If you haven’t played this song on full volume, then you may need to rethink your life. One of the most memorable tracks on ‘Holding All the Roses’ is a standalone on the album. It’s a short instrumental played on solo acoustic guitar called ‘Randolph County Farewell’. Clocking in at just 1:17, it is by a large stretch the shortest piece on the album. Played by lead singer and co lead guitarist Charlie Starr, ‘Randolph County Farewell’ is a welcome break from the rollicking rockers. It’s also a nice nod to Charlie’s influences with guitar, as its clear that he’s a Merle Travis fan. That ‘Travis Picking’ style is unmistakeable in bluegrass, and we almost expect to hear ‘Cannonball Rag’ in the same piece! Blackberry Smoke may typically be a southern rock outlet, but there’s no denying their roots in country music. The EP they released in 2003 entitled ‘New Honky Tonk Bootlegs’ consisted of 5 songs which are undeniably country infused. Considering that and the fact they managed to record the iconic ‘Yesterday’s Wine’ with Jamey Johnson and the late, great, George Jones, Blackberry Smoke really haven’t done too bad for themselves. There’s a couple of very country infused songs on the album. The first I will talk about is one of my personal favourite tracks, ‘Lay It All on Me’. It’s a predominantly acoustic track which appears towards the end of the album. In my opinion, the lyrics are incredible. Just the opening verse with the continuous rhymes ‘Ruby’s got a brother, her brother’s got a lover, his lover’s got another on the side’. What a way to open a song. Again, this song also shows off Blackberry Smoke’s musical prowess, as the chords make heavy use of chromaticism. Now, most people who know music will think of Stravinsky and Schoenberg when someone says chromaticism, but Blackberry Smoke aren’t like that. Not even close. ‘Lay It All on Me’ is full of interesting turnarounds, most notably the unexpected chord progression at the end of each section. Behind all this is some beautiful electric guitar playing. We’re hearing tasty country licks that sound like something straight out of a Merle Haggard track. Beautiful stuff. The other country laced track is also the only other track with a supporting music video. ‘Too High’ is a stunning track. It’s clearly very bluegrass inspired, as we can hear notably in the chorus. Co-guitarist and backing singer Paul Jackson’s high harmonies take us right back to the times of Hank Williams. It’s enough to bring a tear to a grown man’s eye. It is said that the song is written about Charlie Starr’s first experience away from home, where (unbeknownst to him), his housemates were cooking meth in the basement. ‘Too High’ is a story about trying to get away, but struggling in the process. ‘That mountain is too high for me to climb, the river is too deep and it’s too wide’. Its something that a lot of people these days can connect with, not necessarily directly, but with the basic premise. And that’s the true beauty of this song, we’re all the same deep inside. Preach. ‘Living in The Song’ is southern rocker. No other way about it. If there’s any song on ‘Holding All the Roses’ that wouldn’t be out of place on a Lynyrd Skynyrd album, it’s this one. Despite it’s moderate upbeat tempo, this is lyrically one of the saddest songs on the album. It’s about the protagonist struggling to get by post-relationship. ‘Tell me that the darkest hour is just before the dawn… Whoever said that never spent so many nights alone’. To read the lyrics alone would make for a very stark and moving poem, but set it against loud guitars, a moderate tempo and the key of A major, oh and have Charlie Starr sing it, and you get southern blues. The guitar solo has a sense of melodic prettiness, whilst still having the bite of Charlie’s single p90 pickup, and again, Paul Jackson’s high harmony backing vocals remind us of when country music was good, before the times of so called ‘bro country’ and ‘country rap’. Who even likes Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line anyway? I’d far rather crack open a cold one, and listen to Blackberry Smoke, like a real man (as internet sensation Uncle Rob might say). ‘Payback’s a Bitch’. It’s all in the title, straight there in front of you. Everything you need to know about this musical opus. It’s the complete opposite of ‘Living in The Song’ in that the subject matter is the same, but its taken completely differently. ‘Living in The Song’ is the protagonist lamenting about the past complaining about the fact ‘lonesome finds me everywhere I try to hide’. ‘Paybacks a Bitch’ is a protagonist post-relationship vowing to get their back on their not-so-significant other. ‘Don’t think you wrecked it, I’ll get you when you least expect it. And tear down that old tangled web you weave’. It even contains my favourite line on the whole album ‘Karma is about a step behind me’. ‘Payback’ is quite a scary song. Not the kind of scary you associate children’s music boxes and dolls with, I mean it has a presence. You don’t mess with Blackberry Smoke in this one. Easily my favourite part of the song though is at the end. The final time around the chorus. Charlie starts belting out the chorus, but with new lyrics, and there’s extra added instrumental parts to REALLY fill out the texture. To listen to this bit on full volume is an experience, and I really recommend you do it. Right now. ‘Woman in the Moon’ is the slowest song on ‘Holding All the Roses’. I particularly like the production on this song because everything has been given a respectable amount of reverb, and it sounds almost as though we’re listening to it through a tunnel. But it works. It’s also very bass heavy, particularly in the guitar solo. Listening to the guitar solo is quite an experience, as there’s quite a lot going on. Keyboardist Brandon Still is playing something very haunting, and I’m sure there’s an orchestral bass drum thrown in there too. Here we (again) hear a beautiful, melodic solo played by Charlie Starr over the top of it all. ‘Woman in the Moon’ is also in a calm waltz time, which adds perfectly to the haunting feel of it. Despite the reservations you may have after reading that it’s kinda haunting, it’s incredibly laid back, and the lyrics appear to me to be about being different. ‘A Little off kilter, just left of centre, bent just a little out of round’. Charlie Starr has stated that the woman he sees in the moon is Marilyn Monroe, which he states was the ‘weird’ that inspired this song. Further down ‘laid back lane’ we come to ‘No Way Back to Eden’. Generally considered a fan favourite, this is the only ALL acoustic song on ‘Holding All the Roses’. It’s also the calmest song on the album, and has its own little corner on my ‘Relaxed’ playlist. The two most standout things (to me) on this track are the percussion and the backing vocals. From the outset we hear that this track makes use of more traditional sounding percussion over the standard drumkit. I don’t know exactly what was used the recording, but there’s no doubt that drummer Brit Turner’s ‘Shitar’ came into it somewhere! (those who are unaware, the shitar is Brit’s percussive guitar, adorned with all sorts of bells and noisy articles. He usually plays it during acoustic sessions). I also love the backing vocals in this as I feel they’ve been used to brilliant effect. Notably on the first and third lines of each verse, they really seem to bring out the mood of the song. And in the final chorus, the high harmonies really fill the space left in every previous chorus, it builds up to something truly incredible. The final song on ‘Holding All the Roses’ is an upbeat track named ‘Fire in The Hole’. Everything about this track screams Blackberry Smoke. And yet you can still hear the influence of some hard rock bands. The opening chords and verse riff sound like every AC/DC song ever released (coming from a huge AC/DC fan, no offence intended), yet with enough Southern blood to keep it Blackberry Smoke. Lyrically the song is fantastic. It’s quite obscure, I had to really think to understand them, but it seems to me that the song is about people in the world who just go out of their way to f**k things up. People who lie. Its about the kind of people we could do without. ‘It’s a bitter pill, it’s a hard old row to hoe. You’re standing in the way, fucking up the ebb and the flow’. ‘You cross your fingers when you look me in the eye’. Its right there in front of you once the idea hits. That’s one of the beautiful things about Charlie Starr’s song writing, the songs are often obscure until you listen in depth. All in all, ‘Holding All the Roses’ scores a solid 10/10. It’s the perfect blend of country and rock, and never strays too far from the original southern rock formula. It’s like they say, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.

[chloeerenton]

New additions to the collection :) #blackberrysmoke #thewhippoorwill #holdingalltheroses

[earache]

Blackberry Smoke feature in Classic Rock Magazine’s ‘Albums of 2015′ readers poll - read the full article here:

http://classicrock.teamrock.com/features/2016-01-05/classic-rock-readers-albums-of-2015

[insane-crazy]

Today is the day! Super excited to see all these wonderful people again 😍 @blackberrysmoke #TheShed #holdingalltheroses (at The Shed Smokehouse & Juke Joint)

[michiamocandace]

It's a great day for a road trip in New England. Great tunes and sunshine! Happy Easter, y'all! #blackberrysmoke #littlepieceofdixie #holdingalltheroses #nhlife #nhweekend #inthe603

[promowestlive]

Come check out Blackberry Smoke on April 11th at the LC! 

For more information and tickets, click here.

[rockalyrics]

Blackberry Smoke - Holding all the roses lyrics

[orangeisle]

So I work for a band called @blackberrysmoke. They're some of the nicest, most hardworking people I've come across and they have an INCREDIBLE new record out today. I've been so excited for them to finally be able to share it with everyone. So, do me a favor and go pick it up from iTunes. #blackberrysmoke #holdingalltheroses

[earache]

Special Geordie themed passes for Blackberry Smoke’s instore signing at Reflex Records in Newcastle happening right now! Howay the Lads!

[earache]

Attention all Blackberry Smoke fans in the Newcastle area - Thursday 5pm the band will be at Reflex Records for a signing - come down and say hi!

[earache]

Blackberry Smoke kick off the UK leg of their European Tour in Birmingham tonight - on stage 9pm!

[earache]

Click the image above and head over to Classic Rock’s website to read Paul from Blackberry Smoke’s Top 5 Essential Guitar Albums.

Blackberry Smoke are on tour in Europe right now - next stop Milan!

http://www.blackberrysmoke.com/tour

[earache]

Blackberry Smoke are in Paris tonight at Trabendo as part of their headline European Tour. Tickets http://www.blackberrysmoke.com/tour

[earache]

Blackberry Smoke kick off their European headlining tour tomorrow! More info at http://bit.ly/1Lp4chU

[earache]

Charlie Starr of Blackberry Smoke reveals his Top 5 Essential Guitar Albums to Classic Rock - read it here: http://classicrock.teamrock.com/features/2015-10-14/charlie-starr-s-5-essential-guitar-albums

[earache]

Blackberry Smoke have announced an additional date in Glasgow for November 9 at the 02 Academy. On sale Saturday 10th October. Get your tickets here: http://tinyurl.com/prpf373