Blackberry Smoke Concert Review: Boston Hears Georgia

Blackberry Smoke, the country rock powerhouse from Atlanta, Georgia, brought a slice of the South to Boston’s House of Blues on March 21. Their performance, which featured excellent instrumentation and a bare-bones visual approach, highlighted the simple beauty of rock and roll, making Boston truly “Hear Georgia.”

The band of six first graced the House of Blues stage quietly as the lights dimmed. Then, lead singer Charlie Starr kicked off the night with a burst of energy, rushing onstage with a large smile and jumping Blackberry Smoke into their iconic track “You Hear Georgia.” The first portion of the concert focused on the band’s most driving discography, with hits like “Sleeping Dogs” invigorating the audience immediately.

Guitarist and backup vocalist Paul Jackson had an especially electric stage presence. He played off of the audience’s energy, pointing at dancing concertgoers and throwing guitar picks into the crowd to great cheers.

After the opening, the band took a calm moment to dedicate the concert to their recently deceased bandmate, Bret Turner. At the beginning of March, Turner passed away after a fight with brain cancer, prompting a pause in the Blackberry Smoke tour. The band is back on schedule, and they took a moment to remember Turner and dedicate their love of music to his memory.

Blackberry Smoke’s performance was commendable for its stripped-back feel. Stare’s vocals were as strong as his recorded work, and the band members’s talent was placed center stage. Starr ensured that the instrumentalists did not fade into the concert’s shadows, giving each musician room to have their moment and shouting out each member of the band at various points.

Plenty of solos were dedicated to Jackson and bassist Richard Turner, giving the concert an improvised feel despite sticking closely to Blackberry Smoke’s recordings. While Blackberry Smoke skirts the line between country and rock, their performance’s heavy emphasis on guitar proved that they are more Southern rock than country with a rock influence.

The band’s use of visuals reflected their focus on the music. Instead of digital projections, the band utilized a single still image — their Blackberry Smoke butterfly insignia — and stage lights to instill one motif with various moods. On the calm “Azalea” track, for example, the background was darkened to focus attention on the spotlight trained on Starr as he sang the melancholic tune. Meanwhile, on the more guitar-heavy tracks, small, shifting beams of light were used to turn the colorful butterfly backdrop into a psychedelic mosaic. These visuals accurately accentuated the group’s cover of “Long Haired Country Boy” by Charlie Daniels: “’Cause I get stoned in the morning / And get drunk in the afternoon.” These hazy lyrics paired well with the trippy visual effects, even though they were only produced through the simple use of stage lighting.

In the encore, the concert’s opener Duane Betts returned onstage to perform a rendition of The Allman Brothers Band’s classic hit “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” alongside Starr. Duane Betts — son of Allman Brothers Band icon Dickey Betts — and his addition to Blackberry Smoke’s penultimate song added an air of nostalgia to the show, reminding the audience that the band ultimately owes much to its earlier Southern rock influences.

The show’s finale, though, was all about Blackberry Smoke’s idiosyncratic sound. Charlie Starr dedicated the group’s hit song “Ain’t Much Left of Me” to anyone who has to write child support checks on their Ford dashboards, a tongue-in-cheek nod to the country stereotypes that the band sometimes plays into. Starr put his all into the song that might be called the band’s magnum opus, pouring emotion behind the seemingly desperate lyrics: “Well, I’m still holding on, and there ain’t much left of me.” But Blackberry Smoke’s infectious smiles communicated the song’s larger, not-so-distressing meaning — music can help us hold on.

Overall, Blackberry Smoke brought a genuine energy to their House of Blues show and proved that Georgia has its own home in the heart of New England.

—Staff writer Hannah E. Gadway can be reached at hannah.gadway@thecrimson.com.