Blackberry Smoke at Harley Homecoming

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Music Features

For the first time in a decade and a half, Blackberry Smoke is on the road with a new musician in the band’s lineup. Milwaukee will hear the results on July 25 at the Harley-Davidson Homecoming in Veterans Park.

Kent Aberle has taken over on drums for Brit Turner, who alongside fellow original members Charlie Starr (singer/guitarist/main songwriter), Paul Jackson (guitar) and Richard Turner (bass) formed the original Blackberry Smoke lineup in 2000. Brandon Still (keyboards), became the “new guy” when he was added to the band in 2009.

The arrival of Aberle was necessitated by tragic circumstances after Turner was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a cancer of the brain. He underwent brain surgery in November 2022 and stayed active in Blackberry Smoke recording and touring with the band right through this past December. But sadly, Turner succumbed to his illness on March 3 at the age of 57.

Blackberry Smoke have since returned to touring, but Turner’s absence will be felt by his long-time bandmates.

No Stone Unturned 

“Well, he was my best friend, first and foremost, Starr said in a recent phone interview. “He was tirelessly dedicated to this band, and he was the most driven person I’ve ever met, so that was a really good combination for Blackberry Smoke because he did not leave a single stone unturned when it came to anything to do with our business, with our career trajectory. He just, he lived it to the fullest extent. He was (also) a genius graphic design artist. He was the art director for all of our records, or album artwork, merchandise designs, you know. That was his passion, really. He loved design work.”

Turner also played all of the drums on the new Blackberry Smoke album, Be Right Here, which was recorded in early 2023 and released in February.

“I was just remarking to someone just a few minutes ago how I think it might be his best playing on a record,” Starr said. “He had not been diagnosed with glioblastoma at that point, but he had just survived a heart attack. That was the first medical scare that he experienced. He had that heart attack and he went and was taken care of at the hospital, then came home and we took a little time off and then we went and made this record. And I was just like ‘Are you sure?’ He’s like ‘I feel great.’ 

“I think the experience just sort of reminded everybody how precious life is. So it kind of brought us closer together,” the singer/guitarist said. “I have very, very fond, vivid memories of Brit being himself in those sessions, which is constantly like a mischief maker and laughing and giggling. He was his ever-so-irreverent self at every moment. So I don’t know, it might be my favorite (album) session. And obviously, I think the record turned out really, really well. So he sort of put the period on his existence with great performances. That’s a good thing.”

Southern-Tinged Rock

While Starr, as the band’s chief songwriter, played a key role in the band’s Southern-tinged mix of rockers, rootsy mid-tempo tunes and ballads (think the Black Crowes with a bit more twang), Turner obviously contributed significantly as Blackberry Smoke gradually raised their profile through extensive touring and the release of eight studio albums that have continued to grow more cohesive and stylistically focused.

Be Right Here is another strong effort. It has a healthy share of rockers, including “Don’t Mind If I Do” (a swaggering Stonesy tune with a loping beat), the stout “Dig A Hole” and “Little Bit Crazy” (which injects some soul into its rowdy sound). Those high-octane moments are balanced by the snaky, unhurried “Whatcha You Know Good,” the robust ballad “Barefoot Angel” and the pretty, largely acoustic “Azalea.”

For Be Right Here, Blackberry Smoke returned to the legendary RCA Studio A in Nashville, which is now operated by Dave Cobb, the A-list producer who first worked with the band on their previous album, 2021’s You Hear Georgia, and for Be Right Here, recorded Blackberry Smoke playing live in Studio A’s main room, with no separation between the drums and other instruments. “For You Hear Georgia, we had the drums in a drum booth and I was in a vocal booth some of the time and amps were separated,” he said. “This time, everything was in the big room. It lent itself to (being) like a rehearsal or a big jam.”

The live feel of Be Right Here should mean the new songs will translate easily to the concert stage. The band, as has been a tradition for some time, will rotate various songs in and out of the set lists from show to show, while building things around some mainstay songs.

“There are, I guess you could say, favorites the people definitely want to hear, and they might run us out of town at the end of a sharp stick if we didn’t play those,” Starr said. “And then with the release of a new album, it’s very exciting to add new songs, of course—and everything in between, really.

“I’ll take a look at what we played last time in a specific city and sort of write the set list accordingly,” Starr added.

Get Be Right Here at Amazon here.

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