Southern Hospitality

It’s impossible to sit still when the first track of Blackberry Smoke’s latest album Whippoorwill (Southern Ground) comes on. On “Six Days to Sunday,” guitar rips like Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top and keys pound like Adam MacDougall of the Black Crowes, but in this combo it’s Charlie Starr slaying the guitar and vocals, Brandon Still sliding up and down the black and whites, Paul Jackson on guitar, Richard Turner on bass and Brit Turner on drums. 

These Southern souls have been pounding the pavement for more than a decade, but since they signed on with Zac Brown’s label, Southern Ground, three years ago, things have gotten turned up to 11. Playing more than 250 shows every year, these old-fashioned rockers have earned their way to stages with the Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd and George Jones as well as the Zac Brown Band, who they’ll be opening for on Friday, Nov. 16, 7 p.m., at Syracuse University’s Carrier Dome. 

Starr was at home in Atlanta, Ga., when he dialed the Syracuse New Times for a short interview about working with Brown, mispronouncing “whippoorwill” and surviving on the road.

Q: How did you meet Zac Brown?

A: About seven years ago we were a part of the very first cruise that Lynyrd Skynyrd hosted, a floating music festival. We met Zac on that cruise. That was pre-nine No. 1 hits from the Zac Brown Band and they were coming from kind of the same place we were: playing clubs and touring around in a van. So we played on the cruise and we all became buddies and there was a lot of “I love you guys! I love you guys!” 

Q: How did you get onto his label?

A: When we would run into him from time to time over the years, he’s a very gracious guy, and he would say, “If there’s anything I can do for you guys, just let me know.” We were always appreciative. We went through a handful of bad indie label situations and we always kind of steered our own ship, no pun intended. And finally with this last debacle that we went through we were just frustrated, like, OK, we’ll just do our own thing like we’ve always done. So here we were, found ourselves in a precarious position again and he actually reached out at that point and said, “If you guys need a label home, come over here with me. We’d love to have you.” There was mutual respect and the friendship first. And God bless him. He’s been great. 

Q: You recorded Whipporwill in four and a half days, correct?

A: That always seems to be the case with us. We’re a touring band. We don’t have a runaway hit single on the radio or anything. It’s our bread and butter workin’ the road. So, it’s funny the way scheduling works. We came from Wyoming into the studio in Ashville, N.C., and we had four days to get the album tracked and then be in Athens, Ga., to film a show. So we were running crazy. But we loved the album so much; it just sounds exactly like we wanted it to be. Not a big, happy accident, but all pistons were firing. I think the magic that was captured on tape was we were too tired to worry about anything that wasn’t important. A little too exhausted to obsess. It’s sort of like, not muscle memory, but instinct. It was a question of is it good or is it not?

Q: What is a whippoorwill?

A: It’s a bird. I wrote a song called “The Whippoorwill,” which is a tribute to my late grandmother who I spent a lot of time with growing up. And that was a specific reference to something that she taught me: the call that a whippoorwill makes. Very distinct {whistles} and when I was a little boy I remember her teaching me, among many other things, different birds. It’s this very simple idea, this good moment between a grandmother and her grandson. But you wouldn’t believe the ways that I’ve heard it pronounced. You wouldn’t think it would be hard, but people have called it all sorts of things. The whipporpool? What is that?

Q: How do you stay sane on the road?

A: It’s easy to want to strangle one another {laughs}. But there’s a lot of love in our bus. We’re silly as the day is long so that makes it easy. It is a bus full of six-foot-tall kids. That’s what we are.  

Want more? Follow Jessica...

Facebook

Twitter