Building on the Lynyrd Skynyrd Southern rock template, with a good dose of outlaw honky tonk country and a little bit of bluegrass, gospel, and R&B mixed in, Blackberry Smoke (singer/guitarist Charlie Starr, guitarist/singer Paul Jackson, bassist/singer Richard Turner, keyboardist Brandon Still, and drummer Brit Turner) formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2000 and quickly built a loyal fan base on the Southern tour circuit, opening for top-tier acts like Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, the Zac Brown Band, George Jones, and others. The group released a debut album, Bad Luck Ain’t No Crime, in 2004 on Cock of the Walk Records, then followed it with the self-released EP New Honky Tonk Bootlegs in 2008. A second EP, Little Piece of Dixie, appeared from Big Karma Records that same year. A full-length album, this one also called Little Piece of Dixie, was released in 2009 by BamaJam Records. The band then signed with Zac Brown’s Southern Ground Records, which released The Whippoorwill in 2012. The Whippoorwill was picked up by Earache, who formally signed the band in 2013. A deluxe live audio and video package entitled Leave a Scar: Live North Carolina was issued in the summer of 2014. Later that year, BS left Brown’s label and signed a deal with Rounder in the U.S. (Earache remained their European label). Taking a short break from touring, they entered the studio with producer Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, AC/DC) and emerged less than two weeks later with Holding All the Roses, then went straight back to working on the road. The album was issued in February of 2015.
“A lot of country now is leaning more toward rock and a Southern rock feel. But of every artist I can think of in recent memory that has been called ‘Southern rock,’ the most authentic one I heard is Blackberry Smoke,” Tom Keifer(Cinderella) tells Rolling Stone Country. “I remember hearing them the first time and thinking, ‘This is the real deal.’ It felt as real to me as the Allmans or Skynyrd.”
Blackberry Smoke released their fifth studio album, Like an Arrow, featuring Gregg Allman, on October 14, 2016, via their own record label, 3 Legged Records. The album landed at No. 1 on the US Billboard Country and Americana/Folk charts as well as the UK Rock and Independent Albums charts during release week. The band released its sixth studio album, Find A Light, on December 19, 2018.
In 2019, the band released via Earache Records a live album and a film Homecoming: Live in Atlanta, recorded at their annual Brothers And Sisters Holiday Homecoming event at the Tabernacle in Atlanta in November 2018. In 2021 the band released its seventh studio album, You Hear Georgia.
On May 28, 2021, their album You Hear Georgia was released. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Americana/Folk Chart. It sold over 33k copies the first week, 12,239 copies in pure album sales. This was good enough to put it also at No. 1 in album sales in both country and rock, and No. 3 in all of music. The album also racked up another nearly 1 million streams its debut week. The album was produced by Dave Cobb and also features appearances by Jamey Johnson and Warren Haynes.
The new record, Be Right Here streets in Feb. 2024. The premier single “Little Bit Crazy” released on 10/6/2023.
Ref: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/blackberry-smoke-mn0001945132/biography
http://www.blackberrysmoke.com/