986: BLACKBERRY BELLE | TWILIGHT SINGERS

A strong moving Greg Dulli album on par with a couple of Afgan Whigs releases.

Blackberry Belle is the second full-length album released by The Twilight Singers. It was released by One Little Indian Records on October 14, 2003 and features guest appearances by Mathias Schneeberger, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Stanton Moore, Petra Haden and Mark Lanegan. The album is a tribute to director Ted Demme, a close friend of Dulli's who died of a heart attack while playing a game of basketball in January 2002. Dulli had been working on another project entitled Amber Headlights (which would later see the light of day in 2005), but abandoned those sessions due to Demme's death. The recordings which followed, fueled in part by the memory of Demme, resulted in Blackberry Belle.  

With a large cast of performers, including former Prince protégé Apollonia and former Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan, Blackberry Belle became an examination of the dark side of love and loss, a familiar topic revisited from former Afghan Whigs albums like Black Love. Critics welcomed Dulli's return and were eager to give his second album, independently financed and released through One Little Indian Records in October 2003, high marks. Full Article