[rating=7.00]
Blackberry Smoke’s fifth studio album, Like An Arrow, concludes with “Free on the Wing,” where Gregg Allman adds a ghostly gravitas in his role as guest vocalist. The presence of the sole surviving namesake of the Allman Brothers Band lends credibility, not just to the somewhat dramatic conclusion of this self-produced work, but to the legacy of Southern rock as espoused by this quintet.
Like the ABB in their heyday, headquartered in Georgia, where the group recorded this their fifth record of theirs, Blackberry Smoke draw on similar influences as their Dixie rock forebears as well as subsequent prodigy such as Lynyrd Skynyrd. Like the latter band, a layered electric guitar attack amassed by Charlie Starr and Paul Jackson plays off against Brandon Still’s boogie-woogie piano“Let It Burn,” the rootsy rock and roll likes of which connects directly to the deceptively weepy country strains of “The Good Life.” And the Zeppelin-esque hammer-down of “Waiting for the Thunder” is recognition of the inescapable influence of British hard rock.
Distancing this band from formula, guitarists Charlie Starr and Paul Jackson elevate the proceedings with their instruments on the quasi-blues of “What Comes Naturally,” while the rhythm section of Richard Turner and Brit Turner (bass and drums respectively) keeps the band afloat and in time. A knowingly facetious air throughout the songs that comprise Like An Arrow signals the band’s intelligence, so it’s not quite clear why Blackberry Smoke insisted on including lyrics in the eight-page booklet within the digi-pak: more colorful graphics that otherwise adorn the package would be preferable, if only because the iconography would evoke the lighter, insinuating sounds of “Running Through Time.”
Nevertheless, Starr is suitably emotive in rendering the words there and on a similar theme within the title track, an understated vocal approach that suitsacoustic/electric arrangements where piano and organ match the prominence of the fretboards. Still, Blackberry Smoke might better depict their range of strength by stretching out more often as they do on “Sunrise in Texas:” with the bluegrass-cum-folk of “Ain’t Gonna Wait” almost arresting in its own unplugged way as that tantalizing jam, this fivesome may not be extending the reach of contemporary Southern rock like The Marcus King Band, but they’re certainly maintaining its foundation.
