Pulled this one from the archives.
The other week, Blackberry Smoke released an acoustic session from West End Sound of “No Way Back To Eden,” one of my favorite older tunes from them.
The song is featured on their album Holding All The Roses, which dropped back in 2015.
The original song leans pretty heavy on the acoustic guitar and takes a softer sound with the addition of drums during the chorus that amps it up a little. However, the sound overall is different than Blackberry Smoke’s southern rock stylings you’ve come to know and love.
Back in 2015, during the peak of the song, Brit Turner, drummer of the group, sat down with Modern Drummer to talk about the track and the drum parts.
“Yeah, I really wanted to put drums in the chorus, and Charlie was like, ‘I don’t know, I think we need to keep this song just real low-fi percussion.’
And I said, ‘Let me lay this one thing in there, and we can take it out if we want.’
And I think everybody else’s visions of the drums in the chorus was that all of a sudden it was going to be like an Aerosmith song, but it kind of just laid in there real low, and I thought it turned out good.”
They keep the same vibe in the recent studio session, letting the acoustic aspects of the song shine and then letting the chorus carry the rock elements that their fans love.
The outro of the studio session highlights the band’s jam session ability, and I could listen to that section all day.
I love seeing the group still giving this song love after so many years. The lyrics are great, and the melody will be stuck in your head for days.
Give it a listen for yourself.
The studio version:
