Article Contributed by Scott Ward
Published on 2026-04-11
Photos: Courtesy of the Princess Theatre
On Friday, March 27, I rode up to the beautiful and historic Princess Theatre in Decatur, Alabama, for the first time in a couple of months to see Charlie Starr and Benji Shanks of Blackberry Smoke. The band has had two #1 albums – Holding All the Roses and Like an Arrow. They also did an EP, Live From Capricorn Sound Studios, which features covers of songs by Southern rock bands including The Allman Brothers, The Marshall Tucker Band, Wet Willie, and rock and roll pioneer Little Richard from Macon. Two of the standout tracks from the EP feature my friend Jimmy Hall – Wet Willie’s classic “Keep On Smilin’” and “Grits Ain’t Groceries,” the title track from Little Milton’s 1969 album.
Blackberry Smoke’s “One Horse Town” is one of my favorite songs. Growing up in a small town with three red lights and with the anchor of the town being a cotton mill, I can relate. My grandfather and my great-grandfather both worked at the mill in my hometown, and I did when I was in my 20s. There were times when I felt like I was trapped there and there weren’t many other options unless you went to college and found a job somewhere else.
What sets Blackberry Smoke apart from other Southern rock bands is that, in addition to drawing from Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Marshall Tucker Band, and The Allman Brothers, their music features elements of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and traditional blues artists such as Mississippi John Hurt.
Playing to a packed house, Starr and Shanks opened the show with the traditional country blues/folk song recorded by the aforementioned Mr. Hurt, “Make Me a Pallet on the Floor.” With Starr finger-picking the strings of his acoustic and Shanks playing slide on a resonator guitar, I knew I was in for a treat for the rest of the evening. Starr joked that everybody in the audience knew what a “pallet” was – a blanket or layers of blankets laid down on the floor for more comfortable sleeping – and that more than likely nobody north of Blacksburg, Virginia, would.
Both Starr and Shanks had a formidable arsenal of guitars for the show – both acoustic and electric. I’ve known some great slide players in my life – Wayne Perkins (The Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd), Jason Isbell, Will McFarlane (Bonnie Raitt, Etta James), Bill Hinds, and Chris Simmons, who have both played guitar in Paul Thorn’s band – and Shanks deserves to be in that group. His playing also sounds a lot like David Lindley, who played slide guitar and lap steel for Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, and many others. One interesting sidenote: after all these years, I never knew Lindley sang the falsetto vocal on Jackson Browne’s “Stay,” from the album Running on Empty.
For Blackberry Smoke’s “Everybody’s Got a Little Something to Hide,” Starr played some great lead guitar lines, and Shanks played slide on a classic Silvertone guitar. Shanks got some cool Hawaiian guitar sounds out of that guitar, and at times it sounded like a lap steel.
For Blackberry Smoke’s “Pretty Little Lie,” Shanks broke out a 12-string acoustic, and Starr prefaced the song by describing the inspiration for the song – one of his friends was trying to “romance” two women at the same time, a situation where you have to sleep with one eye open – “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
Covering The Marshall Tucker Band’s “24 Hours at a Time,” Starr and Shanks played dueling lead guitar parts on extended solos and also played harmony lines, which is so prevalent in Southern rock – bands such as The Marshall Tucker Band, The Allman Brothers, The Outlaws, Molly Hatchet, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Those are the bands I grew up listening to.
On “Let Me Down Easy,” Shanks played slide on a resonator guitar, which reminded me of Duane Allman’s “Little Martha.”
Starr dedicated “Ain’t the Same” to his friend Allen Carter from Elberton, Ga., the “Granite Capital of the World,” who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The song features the poignant lyrics “nothing’s really changed, but it ain’t the same” and “he could see the angels dancing in the flames.” Shanks’s slide playing on this one once again reminded me of David Lindley’s.
Before launching into Hank Williams Jr.’s “Old Habits,” Starr told the story of how his 4-year-old sister got to go to a Hank Jr. concert, but his mother wouldn’t let him go. His sister told him the next day that the show wasn’t too good – she said, “he only played 3 songs, and then he left.”
“Sleeping Dogs” was great and featured some cool guitar solos – I really love the line, “you best let a sleepin’ dog lie” – one of those sayings you hear all of your life growing up in the South.
On “Who Invented the Wheel,” the protagonist laments the inventions and raw materials that led to the woman he loves being driven away in a car on a blacktop road to leave him. That song has a nice “Midnight Rider” vibe to it.
“No Way Back to Eden,” which features Starr and Shanks finger-picking acoustic guitars and starts with an Am7 to D chord progression, has a Doobie Brothers “Black Water” feel and also features some nice major 7 chords and harmonics. In addition, the song has a nice Allman Brothers/Neil Young sound and also incorporates a Delta blues progression in the middle. Another thing that I like about Starr’s writing is that he draws from so many different influences, which is sadly missing in today’s music. It seems like mainstream country utilizes the same four chords with ten different songwriters.
A couple of times during the show, Starr and Shanks teased a couple of new songs they are working on that weren’t completely finished yet, but the crowd was grateful to get a preview of them.
Starr also told of his experiences writing songs with Zac Brown, most notably Blackberry Smoke’s “Crimson Moon,” and said Brown joked with him before they finished it, telling Starr that the title of the song was “The Crimson Tide Song.” People from up north don’t realize how serious Southerners are about football, especially the rivalry between Alabama and Georgia over the past few years.
Shanks broke out a mandolin for “Azalea,” which is a nice song that reminds me of Led Zeppelin’s “Going to California.”
On a cover of “Give It Away,” which was written by Jamey Johnson, Bill Anderson, and Buddy Cannon and recorded by George Strait, Shanks played some tasty Roy Nichols guitar parts on a Stratocaster. Roy played guitar in Merle Haggard’s band for many years, and he was known for his string bending on his Telecaster.
The crowd all joined in for a singalong during “Ain’t Got the Blues Anymore,” with Starr playing some great acoustic guitar and Shanks playing slide on his Silvertone guitar.
Next, Starr played a Buckcherry song and mentioned his friend Keith Nelson, who founded the band in 1996 but left the band to pursue other projects in 2017. The song segued into John Mellencamp’s “Little Pink Houses.”
Sometimes in our lives, it seems like there is not really any good music being made anymore, but this show was like a breath of fresh air for me. It has inspired me to go back into the studio and record, and Blackberry Smoke is my new favorite band.
