DVD Review: Blackberry Smoke with Bob Weir

Blackberry Smoke

With Bob Weir

An Evening at Tri

(3 Legged Records)

What happens when the hottest southern rock band of the day teams up with legendary Grateful Dead singer/guitarist Bobby Weir? Well, before we answer that, let us consider Atlanta’s Blackberry Smoke. Sure, we southern rockers claim them as the keepers of the flame for southern rock, which they are. But they are much more. They are a country band. They are an Americana band. They are a blues band and a bluegrass band. They are a heavy metal band. These are the guys who are equally comfortable playing with George Jones or Warren Haynes. So their set with Bob Weir is as exciting as a Dead show.

The video cuts between live songs and interview footage. There is a lot of fun in the interview segments, as we learn more about Charlie Starr and his brothers, and the music is, to use a far too trendy and cliché adjective, “off the chain.”

The guys stand and deliver on the classic “Columbus Stockade Blues,” a song I personally love to hear Donnie Winters play. So good to hear it kick off this set. We are treated to some of Smoke’s best songs, including favorites, “One Horse Town,” “Woman in the Moon,” “Ain’t Got the Blues,” and the always beautiful “The Whippoorwill.” Love it.

The collective do an outstanding cover of Johnny Cash’s “Big River,” the Band’s “Up On Cripple Creek” and “The Weight,” and the Chuck Berry rocker, “The Promised Land.” Deadheads will love “Ramble On Rose,” “Big Boss Man,” and “Deep Elem Blues.” There’s Smoke doing “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo,” and the bonus tracks include the same song with Bob Weir. The guys turn in an excellent cover of the Lowell George classic, “Willin” to close out the set.

Taken as a whole, An Evening at Tri is an exciting and downright fun trip. So grab a loved one, get your mind right, chill on the sofa with an adult beverage (or just a sweet iced tea) and enjoy. Nobody will judge you if you start the whole thing over at the end. I did, and “I ain’t got the blues anymore.”

- Buffalo