CLEVELAND, Ohio -- This should be a time of unqualified joy for Blackberry Smoke.
The Atlanta group released its eight studio album, “Be Right Here,” a month and half ago to rave reviews, and it charted on a variety of Billboard charts -- including Rock, Country and Americana/Folk. A tour is underway to promote the album, and the band performs Friday at Temple Live in Cleveland.
It was clearly another step forward in what’s been a gentle ascent during the past 20-plus years.
But the happiness was tempered by the death earlier this month of drummer and co-founding member Brit Turner at the age of 57. Turner had been battling the brain cancer glioblastoma since it was diagnosed back in the fall of 2022 and was even on the road with Blackberry Smoke through the end of last year.
“We’re just hanging in there,” frontman Charlie Starr says by phone from his home in Atlanta. “I think everybody’s run the gamut of emotions. We have a nice, heavy work load and that’s good. It keeps everybody focused on the work.” Blackberry Smoke did postpone three shows after Turner passed away, but there was no question that it would be back on the road in short order.
“We got back to work, which is what (Turner) would have done,” Starr says. “We all kind of were laughing that Brit probably wouldn’t have wanted to postpone any of the shows. He was the kind of dude who went to work on Christmas Eve, that kind of guy.
“I’ve noted that in the last week or so it’s fun just to talk about Brit and tell stories. We wind up spending half the day laughing about stuff he said or did; I even laugh about stuff that we fought about, which was always usually stupid. You really do become like brothers and argue.
“He was just such a loved human being, so it’s very reflective at this time, I guess you’d say.”
Starr says there is no reference to Turner and his condition in the songs on “Be Right Here,” even on those that seem to deal with mortality and sentiment.
“You’re not the first person to ask me that, but it’s really just coincidental,” he explains. “I wrote those songs before he started experiencing those health issues. Then right before we started to make the record he had a heart attack, which was extremely scary for everybody involved, no one moreso than himself. So I think that kind of gave the sessions a little bit of a precious feel. And then he wasn’t diagnosed with the brain tumor until a handful of months later.
“So I think everybody was sort of faced with the idea of mortality. The songs weren’t about him, but I remember those sessions vividly and us laughing just the same. It definitely drew us a little closer together, those circumstances right at that point.”
“Be Right Here” is the second consecutive album Blackberry Smoke made with Nashville producer Dave Cobb, a Grammy Award winner whose resume includes work with Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, John Prine, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell and many others, as well as the “A Star is Born” soundtrack in 2018. The 10-song set was recorded at RCA Studio A in Nashville and at Cobb’s own studio in his native Savannah, Ga.
“You get to know each other a little better, of course, get a little more comfortable with the way each other works,” Starr says, noting that arguments were minimal throughout the sessions. What was different this time was that Cobb put Blackberry Smoke into the studio together without baffles and separation booths that are frequently used while recording -- including on 2021′s “You Hear Georgia.”
“It was almost like we were recording a jam, or a rehearsal,” Starr notes. “It was just loose-feeling. When we started to (record) I remember going into the control room and listening to the first couple of things, and I was grinning from ear to ear. It was really interesting and cool and sounded kind of funky. It set the tone and was really, really fun.”
“Be Right Here” features a pair of songs Starr wrote with Keith Nelson, the former guitarist of Buckcherry who had been a friend since the late ‘90s. “During Covid he quit the band and said, ‘Man, I got some song ideas. Want to write some songs?’” Starr remembers. “It wasn’t for any specific project or any specific band, just to write some songs.
“We’re such good friends and we come from the same school (of music), so it was really easy, and I’m sure we’re gonna do more.”
That may have to wait a minute, of course. Blackberry Smoke has a full itinerary of touring this year, and while Starr plans to “continue to create,” he’s also “just focusing on the here and now” for the time being. But he is happy with how well, and especially how broadly, the new album has been received.
“I could’ve never imagined it, and I don’t think about it until it happens,” Starr says. “I have been very surprised, every time, like, ‘How did that happen?’ It really is nice. I’m really honored by any modicum of success that’s come our way. If people didn’t want to stream it or buy it, that would suck. But they do, which definitely makes us feel really proud.
“And it makes us feel heard, which is the most important thing.”
Blackberry Smoke performs at 8 p.m. Friday, March 29 at TempleLive Cleveland, 3615 Euclid Ave. 216-881-6350 or masoniccleveland.com.