The Black Crowes to land their bare-boned rock at Bluesfest
The Black Crowes are known for delivering gritty, loud and in your face rock’n’roll – and that’s what fans can expect at Bluesfest, says lead guitarist and co-founding brother Rich Robinson.
Bluesfest is far, far away from the cold climes of upstate New York where Rich Robinson happens to be when we chat about his iconic rock band The Black Crowes, which are soon to wing their way Down Under for the annual music festival, held over the Easter long weekend.
The Black Crowes’ stripped-down, bare-boned rock’n’roll has been on fire again since the band reunited in 2019 (it formed in 1984), re-establishing co-founding brothers Chris and Rich Robinson as a global force that has brought their electrifying live show to more than 150 concerts across 20 countries worldwide.
From Atlanta, Georgia, in the US, lead guitarist and music writer Rich, 56, and his older brother, singer and lyricist Chris, 59, got the music bug before they reached their teens. Their dad Stan was a folk musician whose hit single Boom-A-Dip-Dip, described by Rich as “a Bobby Darin pop song”, was No. 83 on the 1959 Billboard charts.
“He was about 18,” Rich Robinson recalls. “Because he loved Dylan, then he started a folk group called The Appalachians, and he toured around the South, played at The Grand Ole Opry, and all these places.
“We grew up with music. Some of my earliest memories are listening to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, which was Dad’s favourite at the time, but Chris and I quickly forged our own musical path and just went on a journey. I was late to playing guitar. I was 14-and-a-half when I got my (first) guitar, but then we just kinda jumped right into it.”
The brothers formed a band with their cousin, started playing and were soon urged to get themselves to a studio to make a demo tape. That demo tape quickly drew interest and by the end of that year, 1984, the brothers had their first recording contract, with A&M Records.
“It was pretty quickly,” Robinson says reflecting on the brothers’ rise to fame. “Within four years of me getting a guitar I was making Shake Your Money Maker.”
More than 40 years later, the brothers’ rock band The Black Crowes has a faithful fan base and countless award recognition, beginning with the five-times platinum album Shake Your Money Maker, producing many more albums over the decades, culminating last year with a nod from The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
On March 13, just before their headlining gig at Bluesfest, the band releases its 10th studio album, A Pound of Feathers, with singles like the rock-fuelled Profane Prophecy and the ballad-like Pharmacy Chronicles already receiving widespread approval. A Pound of Feathers follows on from 2024’s Happiness Bastards, which also nabbed a Grammy nod for Best Rock Album.
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But for Rich and Chris it has always been about making blues-drenched Southern rock and, like their dad Stan’s eclectic taste in music, the brothers’ urge to write and perform was borne through the kaleidoscope of music greats such as Crosby Stills & Nash, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker, Muddy Waters, Mose Allison, among many others.
“Dad had a broad palette for music. He had Tommy (The Who) – I remember listening to it as a kid! When we hit age eight, nine, 10 and 11, Chris and I would go out and buy records. I remember we got If You Want Blood You’ve Got It – AC/DC’s live album (1978),” Robinson says, acknowledging the Aussie rock legend’s huge influence on them both.
“They were f@&#ing brilliant that band. Malcolm and Angus, man. Those two together were like The Everly Brothers of guitar playing. They were perfect together. I’ve never seen a band that powerful but also cheeky at the same time.”
(It’s cool to hear from Robinson how he began his music journey bathed in the high-energy, blues-infused hard rock from the pinnacle of Aussie rock bands.)
“It started me on that kind of guitar journey,” he says. “As we got older we got into David Bowie … then the angst set in and we got into punk rock and bands like X, The Ramones, The Clash and hard-core punk like The Kennedys and Black Flag.”
And then they discovered alt rockers R.E.M.
“It shifted everything. Hard-core punk is not that deep. We had a brief period with it, but we got back into deeper things and R.E.M blew the whole thing up.”
Decades down the track, The Black Crowes is known for its always edgy live shows with an ever-changing setlist – including covers – rock, jamming and ballads. They’ve remained a band authentic to who they are. While they have been minor splits and hiatuses – “that stems from band politics and people around us trying to keep Chris and I apart, because it would fuel some sort of agenda” – what you see is what you get with The Crowes.
Robinson is a prolific musician who values songcraft over technical wizardry. He writes on acoustic guitar and is known for his open tunings.
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He has more than 100 guitars, with one favourite being a 1968 Les Paul Goldtop he still tours with and used on debut studio album Shake Your Money Maker. Robinson also has a 1961 and a1962 ES-335 Gibsons, legendary for their semi-hollow body and known for their versatile “woody” tone, along with some Teles and a 1959 T-Gibson Junior and a 1956 Les Paul Special …
But his most-treasured guitar is his dad’s 1953 Martin D-28.
“It’s the one special guitar I have, when he passed away. I play it in the studio, or at home but I don’t bring it on tour,” he says.
‘Chris is writing about his life, his experiences (while) music for me is a lot more subconscious’
When touring, Rich Robinson takes almost half of his guitars with him.
“Most of the time I take about 40. I play 16 different tunings and each guitar has a backup, so that’s 32 guitars, and then other guitars that are right for some songs but not for others … and acoustic songs.”
He’s also known as the Riff Master, blending the kind of hooky grit and soul that backbones hits like She Talks to Angels and Hard to Handle.
New studio album A Pound of Feathers was recorded in 10 days and pushes the brothers’ rock, soul and blues into new territory.
“Chris is writing about his life, his experiences (while) music for me is a lot more subconscious – it could come from anywhere, more mysterious,” says Robinson.
“The record is very cool. It covers a lot of ground. There are songs that are unlike we’ve ever written before. We’re excited to get out and play these songs, and the cool thing is how these songs work with the old songs – it opens up a whole new way of dealing with live sets.”
With the band – including long-time bassist Sven Pipien and drummer Cully Symington – soon heading to Bluesfest (their first Bluesfest was about 20 years ago), Robinson is looking forward to the eclectic line-up of genres that Bluesfest is known for.
“It’s cool for the bands. It’s cool for people to go see,” he says.
When asked what’s it like to be heading OS, leaving his home country in turmoil, Robinson changes gear: “America has had a lot of turmoil in its lifetime,” he says. “We will get past it and hopefully move into a better position. I’m hoping that people will get to a cooler place and stop hating on their neighbours. Everyone has a right to have a perspective, so let’s be f@$#ing cool and relax and quit hating and fighting and doing all this bullshit. It’s annoying.”
Like The Black Crowes’ iconic sound, Robinson is a straight shooter.
The Black Crowes play Bluesfest on Sunday, April 5, and Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane, Monday, April 6. New album A Pound of Feathers is out March 13.
37th Byron Bay Bluesfest, Easter long weekend, Tyagarah, northern NSW, April 2-5.
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