The UK’s obsession with Blackberry Smoke has always been a fascination for me, not that I’m not a fan of the band, just that it’s not the sort of music that traditionally the UK’s rock fans have embraced. The heavier Black Stone Cherry I get, but it’s refreshing when bands like Blackberry Smoke make that breakthrough. Here in Australia it’s a deterrent story and I’m not entirely sure that either party are aware of each other’s existence.
‘Find a Light’ is Blackberry Smoke’s sixth studio release and like its predecessor ‘Like an Arrow’ was self-produced. And I dare say if you loved that previous album then you’ll find yourself under the spell of this one too.
This one is certainly a crowd-pleaser and cuts straight to the chase: opener ‘Flesh and Bone’ has some nice rocking grunt before the blue country skies of ‘Run Away From it All’ really play to the bands strengths, then it’s right back to rocking for the crunchy ‘The Crooked Kind.’ And it’s that seamless sliding between hard rocking and good old countrified goodness that is Blackberry Smoke’s biggest strength here.
On an album that’s a sheer joy to listen to our highlights include the gentle Allmans-like strum of ‘Medicate My Mind’; the perfectly balanced rock meets country synthesis that is ‘Beat Seat in the House’ and the sublime acoustic closer ‘Mother Mountain.’
This might not be the best Blackberry Smoke album, in my opinion tht’s still 2015’s ‘Holding All the Roses’ but it is the sign of a band still in a rare streak of form and a band who seem to constantly be able to deliver what the fans demand.
