Chris Robinson's new Black Crowes project

I think the recent reissue of Warpaint on blue vinyl opens up hope for re-presses of BTF and Croweology as well!

 

I love it. Have it in my car for a few years now and been listening ever since

 

I always thought that it was a way of having a 'best of' or 'greatest hits' album without having to deal with any record company issues. Re-record old tracks, issue on their own label. No hassle.

There's only about 5 tracks on there that differ in any significant way from the original studio versions (other than being acoustic of course), making a lot of the album redundant (especially if you collect the live material, as they had only recently played two full acoustic shows in NYC in fall 2008)

Including Jealous Again, Remedy, She Talks To Angels and Thorn In My Pride on there reinforces my thoughts.

But, in true Crowes fashion, in reality it's a missed opportunity. Two records gave opportunity to do something interesting.

Instead of re-recording tracks which can never be improved upon in the first place (looking at you Ballad > Wiser), the release could have been a mix of classics and unreleased material.

How much better would disc 2 have been if it had been made up of acoustic reworkings of On That Hollow Day, Feathers, Thunderstorm 6.54, Spider In The Sugarbowl, Nothing Love Everything etc etc?

That way, casual Crowes fans would get what they want, and long term fans get what they want - its a winner all the way. As it is, it's another strange footnote in Crowes history.

(But if anyone has a copy of the vinyl for sale at a non-astronomical price. PM me!)

 

My friend, I dislike just about everything.

But I do like the Crowes.

 

Yes. I never bought Croweology. I'm not a fan of Luther with The Crowes. I bought Warpaint and that was enough of Luther and the Crowes for me.

 

I liked the bonus tracks.

 

See, that would've been great. I guess at the end of the day it just sounded lazy to me. It's not that the music or playing is bad, just sounds like they sleepwalked through it.

 

I love the JJ Cale arrangement of Share the Ride. It was a surprise at first, but quickly grew on me.

One other note on Croweology: TBC listed it at a 1-CD pricing as a thank you to fans.

 

It also has a nice studio version of Cold Boy Smile on it too. And the RSD 7” from the sessions of Willin’/Boomer’s Story.

 

I tend to roll with 12/3/96 with the added benefit of a sweet heavy "Big Time".

 

Same. If Ozone Mama, Lickin, Diamond Ring, and I Ain't Hiding were lost to the annals of time I would not miss them one second.

 

Any band is bound to have lesser inspired material and the Crowes sure have had theirs! Two of my top worst songs they've done have been ...And the Band Played On from Frost and There's Gold in Them Hills from Warpaint.

 

I'll add those to my list as well.

 

Today is the 4th anniversary of the The Black Crowes final public performance.
Thus far it's 223 days longer than the layoff between 2001 and 2005 for those keeping count.
(note: do not bother keeping count)

 

Of course, in typical Black Crowes fashion, this wasn't technically their last show. TBC played a few one-off private gigs in early 2014 that aren't on Crowesbase. The last was in Boston for a Boys & Girls Club benefit in Feb. 2014 I believe.

Steve talked about that real final show on a podcast with Steven Hyden Celebration Rock On The Black Crowes, The Wildest Band Of The '90s.

It's a great interview.

Basically, Steve says he knew by the look on Chris' face when they all left for the airport together after the show that there would be no 2015 tour and the Crowes were done.

 

That's a great interview, highly advise everyone to give a listen if you haven't already.

 

My man.

 

Good seeing you around these parts, man. It’s been a minute.

 

lol...you remember...man, those were the days, right? been a while...

 

Damn...I loved that interview. Steve was so open and honest about what really transpired on this trip to the airport. Sad nonsense for sure (and all from Chris, naturally).

 

I have never heard about the Lanois recordings before!

 

Thanks for sharing the link to the podcast. It's nice to hear it from the horse's mouth per Gorman about the final nail in the coffin for the brothers. Strange how Chris once pointed out, greed, in regards to getting booted from ZZ Top's tour in the early days because he made comments onstage about corporate sponsorship and then 20 odd years later, he cuts out a loyal bandmate because he wants a bigger piece of the pie? Instant Karma's gonna get ya...

On a sidenote, Steve talks about the New Orleans tape they did. Man, there needs to be a deluxe edition of Amorica with these somehow included. The Brothers would be foolish to not seize an opportunity with this. Include the tripped out party they filmed in the studio as well. I would love to see that happen.

 

That's the real kicker about how it all ended. I don't care that the band is done, I think they rode out really nice with Frost/Freeze and Croweology. Seems like everyone is doing what they want, and I'm really digging the CRB. But the rather permanent end to the Crowes, with all the bad blood and finger pointing, makes it seem less likely that the vaults will open in any meaningful way.

 

I recall there was a card with a code in the Lions cd case to download songs. I have no idea what that was about at the time. I didn't care for that album at that time. But I have got into some of the songs over the years. I have always wondered about the similarity between the Soul Singing video and the video for No Rain by Blind Melon.