Blackberry Smoke - The Southern Ground Sessions (2018)

Blackberry Smoke’s crunchy Southern rock may be made for fuzzed-out electric guitars, but their songs sure do translate well to being played acoustically.

The six-track EP collects acoustic versions of songs taken from Blackberry Smoke’s latest LP, Find a Light, plus a cover, with these renditions all cut at Zac Brown’s Southern Ground Studios in Nashville. A chugging rock riff with a jackhammer breakdown and guitar solo on the album version, this new recording of “Run Away From It All” sees singer Charlie Starr and company huddled around microphones as they strum away from the comfort of some stools. The song takes on a more relaxed and wistful vibe, but the same simmering urgency of the original bubbles just beneath the surface.