Most concert reviews begin by spotlighting the headliner. But when both the headliner and the opening act give high-energy sets worthy of the top notch spot, then you wonder who should get the most attention. Both Blackberry Smoke and Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown came into City Hall Live in Brandon, Mississippi, on Thursday night (March 22) so blazing hot the fire couldn’t be contained. And that, folks, is exactly how it’s supposed to be done.
When we last visited Blackberry Smoke, they were playing in a frigid New Orleans before setting sail on the Outlaw Country Cruise in January while Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown have been the go-to support for some of rock’s biggest names – AC/DC, Zakk Wylde and Guns N Roses (who they are going back out with this summer for some European dates), just to name a few. Both bands will hot iron brand you with their personalized rock & roll – BBS with a bluesy Southern Rock twist; Bryant with a strong Texas blues – and both bands rarely slow down enough for anyone in the audience to even think about heading to the beer bar or restroom in fear of missing some good stuff happening onstage.
Tyler Bryant, a young Texan who idolized Elvis before becoming totally enthralled with the blues, has definitely found his home with his band The Shakedown, featuring Graham Whitford on guitar, Noah Denney on bass and Caleb Crosby on drums. With three recordings under their belt – Wild Child, The Wayside and late-2017’s self-titled full-length – they have solidified their sound and mastered their stage presence. Bryant is no longer the only member of the band to stand out. Whitford has plenty of riffs in his arsenal to fire up any song, while Crosby will take centerstage with his drum and raise a ruckus, like Tommy Lee but on a smaller scale, and Denney will power up the engine and go full-steam ahead. It’s a chemistry set with nothing but explosives inside.
With their setlist consisting of two songs from each of their records, Bryant covered all his bases. “Ramblin’ Bones,” a front porch Muddy-style blues that retains it’s old school resonator roots with a modern young man’s update, the band stirred the pot by throwing in an early Presley “That’s Alright Mama” into the song, ending up with a dripping hot lava solo from both Whitford and Denney. “Downtown Tonight” was nothing but good sweaty rock & roll followed by “Mojo Workin’” and it’s speeding train rhythm section. Bryant would appear later, dueting with Charlie Starr during Blackberry Smoke’s encore of “Key To The Highway.” “Music brings people together,” Bryant said during their set and these are definitely four guys you can’t get enough of.
Having seen BBS just a few short months ago, you would think they would have a similar set to the one they played before. But the great thing about this band is that they know how to change everything up and never lose sight of what they came to do, which is give fans a mighty whale of a good time. With a new album coming on April 6th, followed by a new tour, more new songs will surely fall into place in the setlist; but for this night in Mississippi, we were treated to the psychedelicized Deep Purple-ish “Flesh & Bone” and the swinging “Best Seat In The House.”
In my previous review, I called BBS, “the pinnacle of what good, southern-flavored rock & roll should sound like;” and this remains truer than ever. No longer on-the-rise but still striving for new ways to evolve their sound without losing their core, Blackberry Smoke is what success-without-arrogance looks and sounds like. They may give you an old fan favorite like 2012’s country-fried “Sleeping Dogs” but spice it up with a roaring “Come Together” in-between verses, as well as enhancing the hippie-trippy psychedelia that is hinted at within the original song. And they continue to up the finger dancing of organ player Brandon Still, as on “Sleeping Dogs,” “Restless” and “Ain’t Got The Blues,” which was dedicated to Mississippi John Hurt and in which the crowd sang alone on one of the verses as the band just played along and let them roar.
Starr and guitarist Paul Jackson brought out the acoustics for “Who Invented The Wheel,” with a turn through “A Country Boy Can Survive.” Starr kept his acoustic strapped on through the next song, “Ain’t Got The Blues,” and Jackson would return to his acoustic for “One Horse Town” later in the set. Starr played a moody slide on the intro to “Ain’t Much Left Of Me” and “Sanctified Woman.”
The Turner brothers, bass playing Richard and drummer Brit, are the laidback smoking guns of the band for sure, with that chug-a-lugging rhythm on “Payback’s A Bitch,” “Good One Comin’ On” and “Believe You Me,” which brought out the band’s funk influences.
And Starr has yet to subdue the pissed-off attitude on “Waiting For The Thunder,” encapsulating the vibe with red lights, a dark Sabbath rhythm and Still’s haunted organ. In times like these, we need some reality checks in our music and BBS have never been shrinking violets when it comes to speaking what they think. I mean, wouldn’t you just be a little paranoid if you knew Starr had written “Payback’s A Bitch” about you?
As I said before, and I’ll say it again here, if Blackberry Smoke (and Tyler Bryant as well) comes anywhere near your town, pick up the keys and head right on over to the venue and get a good dose of what rock & roll does and should sound like.
Blackberry Smoke: Let Me Help You, Six Ways To Sunday, Good One Comin’ On, Workin’ For A Workin’ Man, Waiting For The Thunder, Living In The Song, Believe You Me, Sleeping Dogs, Sanctified Woman, The Whippoorwill, Best Seat In The House, Who Invented The Wheel, Ain’t Got The Blues, Flesh & Bone, Payback’s A Bitch, Restless, One Horse Town, Like An Arrow; ENCORE: Key To The Highway, Ain’t Much Left Of Me.
Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown: Weak & Weepin’, Criminal Imagination, House On Fire, Downtown Tonight, Mojo Workin’, Ramblin’ Bones, That’s Alright Mama, Lipstick Wonder Woman.
