Modern Southern Rock torchbearers Blackberry Smoke are bringing their summer tour to Cincinnati.
As the tour’s title suggests, the group’s “Spirit Of The South Tour: A Celebration of Southern Rock and Roll” will be a Southern Rock extravaganza, as Blackberry Smoke will be joined on the trek by like-minded acts The Allman Betts Band, The Wild Feathers and founding drummer of The Allman Brothers Band, Jaimoe.
The tour comes to Riverbend’s PNC Pavilion on July 31. Tickets ($24-$160.50) go on sale this Friday, March 6 at 10 a.m. via ticketmaster.com.
The shows on the tour, according to a press release, will be closed out with an all-hands-on-deck jam featuring the members of each of the bands and “additional surprise guests” during which they’ll showcase “the inspirations of Rock, Blues, Gospel and Soul music.”
Blackberry Smoke has also teamed up with Macon, Georgia’s The Allman Brothers Band Museum At The Big House to bring a mobile version of the museum with them on the tour.
Per the tour press release:
The museum will feature never-before-seen archival items including original hand-written lyrics, awards, rare family photographs, iconic pieces of clothing and jewelry, one-of-a-kind instruments played by the band and more. Jaimoe will also be onsite at the museum and available for meet and greet opportunities at each stop. All “Spirit Of The South Tour” ticket holders will be granted free access to the museum with $1 of each ticket donated to The Allman Brothers Museum at the Big House to help preserve its history and heritage.
"We are beyond excited to bring our Spirit Of The South tour to fans this summer," Blackberry Smoke singer Charlie Starr says in the release. "If you think of this music as a genre and you step back far enough to see the scope of what a handful of bands from the South were able to accomplish, it’s pretty damn staggering. All without giving a damn about what was hip or trendy at the time. It’s music that is a part of the fabric of people’s lives…music that we all love and cherish deeply."
"On this tour we’d like to celebrate the musical freedom championed by those pioneers and maybe help tell the story," Starr continues. "It’s not only what people think of as Southern Rock, but all the elements in Rock and Roll that make it Southern. It’s blues, gospel, soul, jazz and bluegrass…everything that took root in the South and spread all over the world. We feel this tour is going to give us all a unique opportunity for something really special. I think everyone will love the Celebration!”
