The pedals keep coming! Enter Stompboxtober Day 28 for your chance to win today’s featured pedal from Line 6!
Line 6 Hx One Stereo Multi-Effects Pedal
Tickets for the newly added dates will be available for pre-sale starting tomorrow, Tuesday, October 29 at 10am local time, with the general on-sale following this Friday, November 1 at 10:00am local time. Full details and ticket information can be found at blackberrysmoke.com.
Throughout their career, Blackberry Smoke has released eight studio albums including their latest, Be Right Here. Produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell), the record was released to widespread critical acclaim earlier this year and debuted at #1 on the Current Country Albums chart, Americana/Folk Albums chart and Current Rock Albums chart.
Since forming in 2001, Blackberry Smoke has continued to tour relentlessly, building a strong and loyal community of fans. In addition to their work as musicians, the band is deeply committed to charitable work and formed the Brit Turner Family Fund, a non-profit supporting several national foundations committed to curing children’s cancer. With these efforts, the band has raised over $1,000,000 to date benefitting children’s cancer research. Most recently, Blackberry Smoke raised over $26,000 with their hometown show at Atlanta’s Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park earlier this summer, which celebrated the life and legacy of the band’s late drummer, Brit Turner.
BLACKBERRY SMOKE CONFIRMED TOUR DATES
October 30—Bakersfield, CA—Fox Theater~
October 31—San Diego, CA—Humphreys Concerts by the Bay~
November 1—Las Vegas, NV—The Pearl Concert Theater~
November 2—Riverside, CA—Fox Performing Arts Center~
November 7—St. Augustine, FL—St. Augustine Amphitheatre^
November 8—Clearwater, FL—Ruth Eckerd Hall^
November 9—Fort Myers, FL—Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall^
November 10—Pompano Beach, FL—Pompano Beach Amphitheater^
November 14—Royal Oak, MI—Royal Oak Music Theatre%
November 15—Marietta, OH—Peoples Bank Theatre%
November 16—Shipshewana, IN—Blue Gate Performing Arts Center%
November 21—Carterville, IL—Event Center at Walker’s Bluff Casino Resort
November 22—Tulsa, OK—Cain’s Ballroom**
November 23—Shawnee, OK—FireLake Arena**
December 5—Mobile, AL—Saenger Theatre††
December 6—Augusta, GA—Bell Auditorium##
December 7— Fayetteville, NC—Crown Theatre##
December 8—Savannah, GA—Johnny Mercer Theatre##
December 31—Macon, GA—Macon City Auditorium^^
January 30—Morristown, NJ—Mayo Performing Arts Center
January 31—Bensalem, PA—XCite Center at Parx Casino
February 1—Worcester, MA—The Palladium
February 2—Patchogue, NY—Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts
February 5—Portland, ME—State Theatre
February 6—Burlington, VT—The Flynn
February 7—Providence, RI—The Strand Ballroom & Theatre
February 8—Williamsport, PA—Penn College Community Arts Center
February 13-17—Rock Legends Cruise XII
March 6—Rockford, IL—Coronado Theatre
March 7—Peoria, IL—Peoria Civic Center Theater
March 8—Evansville, IN—Aiken Theatre
March 27—New Orleans, LA—The Fillmore
March 28—Houston, TX—713 Music Hall
March 29—Helotes, TX—John T. Floore’s Country Store
April 25—Miramar Beach, FL—Moon Crush “Pink Moon”
May 8—Austin, TX—ACL Live at the Moody Theater
May 9—Dallas, TX—Majestic Theatre
May 15—Maryville, TN—The Shed
May 16—Maryville, TN—The Shed
May 17—Maryville, TN—The Shed
~with special guest Kelsey Waldon
^with special guest Southall
%with special guest Sam Morrow
**with special guest Taylor Hunnicutt
††with special guest Georgia Thunderbolts
##with special guest Tishamingo
^^with special guest Robert Jon and the Wreck
Brad Labelle
Brad Labelle - Nap Eyes
A: I love dance music and have an unrelenting thirst for new and fresh sounds. I don’t feel my guitar playing is particularly groundbreaking, but those influences must seep through somehow. I do believe I’m a fairly expressive player and my short attention span keeps me endlessly improvising.
Nap Eyes’ latest release, The Neon Gate.
Obsession: I can’t stop listening to the recent Jane Remover track “Magic I Want U.” The production is deeply detailed but doesn’t feel cluttered, and her melodic sensibilities are intoxicating. She gives you crunchy guitars paired with breakbeats, West Coast synth lines, a Janet Jackson-esque electro outro, scratching, a fun little guitar solo.... I could go on.
As of late, Two Star & the Dream Police by Mk.gee has been in Brad's regular listening rotation.
Galen Brownson - Reader of the Month
Metallica’s two-guitar format inspired Galen when he was learning guitar.
A: When I was learning how to play, I was listening to a lot of two-guitar bands, like Metallica and Megadeth and Iron Maiden. I tried to find ways to play both guitar parts at once, which is not always possible, but I write two parts for one guitar now.
Metallica’s second album is a fan favorite of their early, pioneering years.
Obsession: My latest obsession is finding ways to combine metal music with electronic music, particularly dubstep. My younger brother once chastised me for ignoring electronic music by saying “metal and dubstep have a lot in common,” and he was absolutely right. I’ve since made it a goal to weave them together.
Galen names Polis by Uppermost, a French electronic music producer, as one of his favorite records.
Ted Drozdowski - Editorial Director
Ted takes a slide solo on his well-traveled and beloved Dollycaster.
A: My interests toggle between history and mystery, so my technique is based in archaic/anarchic blues playing styles and an expansive sonic palette that relies on blending fingerpicking, slide, and an array of pedals to create tones and sheets of sound. I think of it as cosmic roots music, and don’t hear a lot of other people doing what I do the way I do it.
The marquee image for Ted and Coyote Motel’s new movie, The River: A Songwriter’s Stories of the South.
Obsession: For a few years now, much of my creative energy has been invested in a feature film I created with my band Coyote Motel—scripting, recording narration, performing as part of the band, editing, and learning many painfully new and hard lessons about movie-making. And then getting the film to festivals, where we’ve won laurels, and onto a few select screens. Now, I’m working on distribution, in a field where there ain’t no Bandcamp or DistroKid. It ain’t easy, but I’m obsessed with getting The River: A Songwriter’s Stories of the South into the world.
The current state of Ted’s pedalboard. (He’s aware he could do a better job with the wiring.)
Kate Koenig - Managing Editor
Kate’s newest album, which contains some of their rawest and most vulnerable lyrics to date.
A: I wear my heart on my sleeve—to the point where I’ve always struggled to have a verbal filter—so I tend to write very raw, vulnerable lyrics. A taste for cerebral art during my formative years has also informed my approach to coming up with challenging and intricate fingerpicking guitar parts.
When PG’s worldly gear editor Charles recommended Black Flag’s record Damaged, Kate got on that posthaste.
Obsession: I’ve been revisiting, digging into, and expanding my knowledge of classic ’80s and ’90s punk in preparation for my next artist interview for Premier Guitar(some foreshadowing, eh?). I have always been intrigued by punk culture’s outspoken rebelliousness and commitment to anarchic ideals, which strike me as free and authentic.
Kate has a distinct memory of a classmate playing “You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid” on loop in their senior-year studio-art class. (They still wonder why their teacher didn’t intervene.)