Be Right Here

Atlanta's finest, Blackberry Smoke, have announced details of their 8th studio album, "Be Right Here". The album was produced by Dave Cobb, who worked with the band on 2021's "You Hear Georgia", at Nashville’s RCA Studio A, and then finished at Cobb’s Georgia Mae studio in Savannah, Georgia. It'll be released on February 16th, 2023.

News of the the album's release is accompanied by the arrival of its first single, "Dig A Hole", the 1st song band frontman Charlie Starr wrote for the album. Infusing Blackberry Smoke's classic and southern rock sound with a dose of swampy psychedelia, it's also a song with a message.

"The lyrics for this song came really quickly", says Starr. "We each have a finite amount of time on this earth, so you probably want to make the best out of it instead of wasting it. Eventually for all of us, they are going to you dig a hole, so try to have a good life before they do that".

"Be Right Here" was recorded in late 2022 and early 2023, during a time in which drummer Brit Turner, who remains a fully active member of the band, was diagnosed with Glioblastoma, a type iof brain tumour. The band, Starr and Turner, plus bassist Richard Turner, guitarist Paul Jackson and keyboardist Brandon Still, are joined on the album by touring members Preston Holcomb and Benji Shanks, plus guest vocalists The Black Bettys.

“We didn’t feel a whole lot of pressure to go in and make this one quickly”, says Starr. "It’s just as natural and as real as possible. The last album was very raw too, but with this one I remember different times I would say, ‘I think we should redo that,’ and Dave was like, ‘No, leave it that way. That way it’s magical'."