Rich Robinson

Infobox musical artist
Name = Rich Robinson

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Background = solo_singer
Born = birth date and age|1969|5|24
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Died =
Genre = Blues-rock, Hard rock
Instrument = Guitar
Occupation = Musician, Songwriter
Associated_acts = The Black Crowes
Hookah Brown
Circle Sound
Label =
Years_active = 1984–present
URL = [http://www.richrobinson.net Rich Robinson]
[http://www.blackcrowes.com The Black Crowes]
Notable_instruments =

Rich Robinson (born May 24 1969) is a musician and a founding member of the rock group The Black Crowes. Along with older brother Chris Robinson, Rich formed the band in 1984 (which was originally called "Mr. Crowes Garden") while the two brothers were still attending high school (Walton High School in Marietta, Georgia). At age 15, Rich first wrote the music to what would become one of the band’s biggest hits, "She Talks to Angels".

Robinson grew up in the East Cobb County / Marietta suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. He was greatly influenced by The Rolling Stones, The Allman Brothers Band, Neil Young, and Led Zeppelin. Robinson has also cited folk-guitarist Nick Drake as an influence. Robinson claims it was Drake, and not Keith Richards, that led him to open tunings. The guitarist often employs open G in many of The Black Crowes’ songs and has also used open E, B♭, and G♭.Often overshadowed by his brother and Crowes' front man Chris, Rich has been the steadying influence in the band and the source for almost all of its music. A natural songwriter (his father Stan Robinson had a minor hit in the 1950s), Robinson was still in high school when the band began touring. At first Rich relied heavily on the strength of the songs to make up for his inexperience at playing guitar. However, the massive touring and open-ended jams helped his playing significantly. Soon, Young Rich (as his brother often referred to him in concert) was covering Duane Allman's slide solo from The Allman Brothers Band's "Dreams" demonstrating his emerging mastery of the guitar.Fact|date=August 2007

In 1990, The Black Crowes released their debut album "Shake Your Moneymaker", followed by the 1992 release of "The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion". Although the band’s popularity never again reached the pinnacle of these two albums, The Black Crowes established a loyal and steady following mainly due to their live shows which feature dual guitars and Page-Plant like interplay between Rich and Chris. Following several albums released throughout the 1990s the Black Crowes released "Lions" in 2001.

olo

Robinson seemed poised to redirect the band’s music into more progressive ventures, but after more touring, brother Chris decided that he wanted to pursue a solo album.

After the announcement of the band’s hiatus, Rich formed a new outfit called Hookah Brown. The band (featuring John Hogg on vocals, bass, guitar and keyboards, Bill Dobrow on drums and Fionn O Lochlainn on bass, guitar, harmony vocals and electric piano) was an attempt to create a sound that was a little different from The Black Crowes. Robinson handled most of the songwriting, with Hogg contributing lyric and melody ideas to some material. After their debut gig at Arlene's Grocery in New York City, the band entered Robinson's Globe Studio to record a few original tracks. Included on this demo were "Cut the World," "Know Me" and "Black Cloud," among several others.

After completing the demo sessions, Hookah Brown began touring clubs and other small venues throughout the United States. The gigs were well received and it appeared that the band was on the cusp of success, both commercially and critically. In April 2003, however, it was announced that Hookah Brown would be going their separate ways and that Robinson would be continuing as a solo act. The guitarist later revealed that the expense of operating a full band on tour without the backing of a record label proved too much and forced the disbanding of Hookah Brown. In fact, John Hogg abruptly left Hookah Brown, followed by Fionn O Lochlainn & Bill Dobrow after a contract was presented to them by Robinson's New York lawyer.

Robinson continued to tour throughout the end of 2003 and well into 2004. His band featured a consistently rotating line-up, with drummer Bill Dobrow and bassist Gordie Johnson (ex-Big Sugar) being the only fairly regular faces. By August, Robinson had a full album of original material ready for release. Entitled "Paper", the record featured many new songs in addition to some reworkings of material from the Hookah Brown period. Robinson handled guitar, bass, and other instruments as well as taking over the lead vocals, with the gaps being filled in by Joe Magistro (drums), Eddie Harsch (keyboards), Donnie Herron (fiddle, violin) and his own son Taylor Robinson (percussion). [ [http://www.richrobinson.net/bio.php Rich Robinson - Bio ] ]

During breaks from touring with The Black Crowes, Robinson found time to assemble another band, Circle Sound. Featuring Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi All-Stars), Bill Dobrow, Sven Pipien (The Black Crowes) and Rob Clores (The Black Crowes) in addition to himself, the band played a handful of gigs on the east coast and are expected to perform again in the future.

In addition, Robinson contributed to singer/songwriter Patti Smith's release "Twelve", which was released in April 2007.

Black Crowes reunited

In January 2005, Chris and Rich Robinson played an acoustic show together in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the first time since the Black Crowes went on hiatus in 2002 that the two brothers had played together on the same stage. This and the reactivation of the band's website [ [http://www.theblackcrowes.com] ] fueled rumors that the Black Crowes were re-uniting.

In March 2005, the Black Crowes officially went back on tour in Pittson, PA. The tour included seven nights at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York and when the band came for a four night run at the Tabernacle in their home town of Atlanta, GA, the bands original drummer, Steve Gorman, returned to the band. The tour continued with many dates in the US and a couple in Canada.

In June the band began opening for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and also played several music festivals including the Bonnaroo Music Festival. While still on tour with Tom Petty they started playing clubs on their own, and treating their audiences to two-set shows that were close to three hours long. In August they did a five night run at the The Fillmore in San Francisco which was filmed for the 2006 live CD/DVD entitled "Freak 'n' Roll Into The Fog". The band also did two shows in Japan. The Crowes spent that northern fall doing two set-shows around the US including four nights at the Henry Fonda Music Box Theater in Los Angeles.

In November and December Chris took time off from the Crowes to tour with Phil Lesh and Friends on their Shadow of the Moon Winter Tour. He joined back up with the Crowes to finish out 2006 with three shows including a New Year's Eve show at Madison Square Garden in New York.

After a handful of shows in the States in March, the Black Crowes headed overseas to do three shows at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London, England, and three shows at the Paridiso in Amsterdam, Holland.Chris and Rich spent the month of April doing 13 acoustic shows. The tour was titled and a CD and DVD from one of their three nights at the Roxy in Los Angeles during this tour was released in 2007. The Brothers played new material during their tour for the first time since the Black Crowes had reunited as well as playing each others' solo material together for the first time.

From here the brothers joined back up with the Crowes and headed to Canada for the month of May with openers Matt Mays and El Torpedo. They headed back to the States for a handful of two-set shows before heading out on a summer shed tour starting in June with the openers Robert Randolph and the Family Band and the Drive by Truckers. They played mostly one-set shows although they did sneak in a few two-set club dates during the summer. The band continued to play a mix of songs from all of their albums, cover songs and a few new songs. This tour ended at Red Rocks in Morrison, Colorado,on August 12th and then an acoustic brothers' show in Boulder, CO, on August 13th. Tickets to the show were given only to winners of a contest put on the band's message board.

Before the band returned to the road in the beginning of September, guitarist Marc Ford and keyboardist Eddie Harsch abruptly left the band. Health reasons were cited for both of them. They were replaced by guitarist and record producer Paul Stacey who had played with Chris on his solo tour and keyboardist Rob Clores. This tour ended November 12th at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey.

During the winter and early spring of 2007 Rich pulled together some friends to do two Circle Sound shows in New York. Both he and Chris did a handful of solo shows. In June the Black Crowes headed back on tour doing one-set shows, sometimes with alternating openers including the Buffalo Killers and the North Mississippi Allstars. In July Chris and Rich appeared on the "Late Show with David Letterman" and did an acoustic version of the song "Wiser Time".

At their August 3rd show at the Musikfest in Bethelem, PA, the band made another member change when keyboardist Rob Clores left the band and was replaced by Adam MacDougall. This tour ended in early November with two shows at the United Palace Theater in New York and two shows at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia, PA.

References

External links

* [http://www.richrobinson.net/ Official website]