Chris Robinson's new Black Crowes project

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by cable hogue, Nov 13, 2017.

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  1. Desolation Row

    Desolation Row Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oklahoma
    The Magpie show I caught in Tulsa was great, but that's the one show Marc missed, due to a cracked rib. I was so excited. I'm finally going to see Rich and Marc playing BC music again! My wife was going to see them together for the first time! Then.... no Marc.

    So it was easier to notice Chris's absence. Nico did a great job filling in. But without Marc it was more the Rich Robinson Band with Sven on bass. Hogg was good, but I didn't have the distraction of Marc and Rich melting my face. Hogg sings well, and he has good frontman presence. I don't struggle with that part as much as I struggle with how Chris's lyrics are so unique, and therefore sound awkward coming from someone else.

    I still support both camps. I just remind myself that being a Black Crowes fan has always meant enduring their melodramatic break-up/reunion cycles over and over again. They have always been dysfunctional. Just never this dysfunctional. I never say never with the Black Crowes, but Chris has never made it this hard.
     
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  2. Desolation Row

    Desolation Row Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oklahoma
    Yes, I still regret Sluppick's departure. I like Tony well enough, but George was a better drummer for the CRB's sound and style. Sluppick has a great groove. He swings. Tony is a little more precise and punctuating. I miss Muddy, too. I'm not much a fan of Any Way You Love, outside of a couple cuts (California Hymn, Leave My Guitar Alone), but I love the first three, especially The Phosphorescent Harvest. And I love the latest, Barefoot in the Head.

    You mention Chris's "brazen bad attitude, mouthiness and swagger...." Yes, those are things that made me love him. Chris showed me that you can be a scrawny, ****ed up, weird kid and still exude confidence and swagger. He was an icon for me. He was briefly one of the three most popular and quintessential, albeit each in their own way, frontmen in rock, alongside Axl and Kurt. Chris was rebellious like Axl, but without the violence and misogyny. Chris was irreverant and tormented like Kurt, but not in a self-pitying way. Chris was my frontman hero.

    But now those things that constituted his charisma are tearing him apart. I've been quietly hoping that his solo shows, with a healthy dose of Black Crowes tunes, have been a sign that maybe, just maybe, these guys will find a way to, not be friends, but brothers, and play together once in a while.
     
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  3. JPJs Bass Guitar

    JPJs Bass Guitar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glasgow, UK
    I'm of the opinion that Chris and Rich should never play together as The Black Crowes again.

    It's over and having seen the 2013 tour, it was clearly over long before that, but that last go round was a disgrace.

    If they were to do a Brothers of a Feather run that'd be different, but I still don't care for that.

    As far as I'm concerned, the brothers are where they need to be now - miles apart and doing their own thing.
     
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  4. How so?
     
  5. JPJs Bass Guitar

    JPJs Bass Guitar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glasgow, UK
    A few things.

    Say Goodnight To The Bad Guys. Well for 18 months anyway.

    New lead guitarist? Yip. Complete with music stand to clearly show they hadn't rehearsed? Sure.

    First full UK tour since 2001 - and it was a rehearsal for the U.S. tour. I'm sure I posted here at the time but the show I attended was the third with the line-up and it was ok at best. It did include the nadir of my Crowes shows, a back to back Whoa Mule and Garden Gate. The rest was greatest hits. There was no spark, no excitement. It was going through the motions.

    As for the overall tour, there were high spots (playing Low Down was a nice surprise and Peter Frampton turning up at the Ryman to inspire the best Thorn of the tour) but also plenty of lows. Check out the setlists - 85% predictable

    How about letting the guy who hasn't actually contributed a single idea to a Crowes track or played on any albums have a solo showcase on some of the shows? Bizarre. And he's not even that good.

    Wiser Time was a tragedy every night, ruined by a 'wizard' on keys with a penchant for hitting the button marked 'freak out and turn the song into an electronic cheesefest', whilst dragging it into 20+ mins of boredom.

    Overall it was a prolongation of the band to make some dough. Nothing wrong with that but at least put some effort into it. It was a great tour if you're happy seeing a band on autopilot doing Jealous Again and Hard To Handle for the millionth time.

    Just my opinions of course, maybe someone saw the best Crowes show they ever did see on that tour!
     
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  6. Vinyl_Blues

    Vinyl_Blues Slave to the Groove

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    I loved that part of the show. Hearing Chris do John Lennon was a highlight for me. To each his own.
     
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  7. So, a disgrace or OK at best?
     
  8. JPJs Bass Guitar

    JPJs Bass Guitar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glasgow, UK
    80% disgrace, 20% ok at best.

    Or something like that. Its not a scientific calculation.
     
  9. The Portland, Maine show I saw was anything but a disgrace. One of the better set lists of the shows I've attended over the years. There's too much exaggeration when it comes to the fans of this band. They can't do anything right since the mid-nineties.
     
  10. wiseblood

    wiseblood Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston, MA, USA
    And be sure to NEVER ask Steve about these sessions. I do think he's still pissed that songs like this and "Title Song" never saw the official light of day (until subpar live releases). He had a great idea for these: they should have - at the time - been released as an EP just to get the juices flowing and issued. Then they could have returned to work on amorica./Tall.

    Oh, what was to be...
     
  11. JPJs Bass Guitar

    JPJs Bass Guitar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glasgow, UK
    As I said, it's personal opinion! I paid to see a rehearsal and that's not good enough for me.

    For the record, I love the Before The Frost album, so I'm not a 'Nothing After 97' guy - the 1998 Sho Nuff show I saw was far better than the 2013 (once I'd adjusted to the sight of Chris in a feather boa and eyeliner. It'd only been 18 months since I last saw him in a Dead shirt and torn jeans!).

    Their heart was in it, they were trying to reboot the band, they had new material. Whether it was their greatest move is open to debate but it felt genuine. 2013 was nothing like that.
     
  12. Jack

    Jack Senior Member

    Still hoping for a vinyl repress of By Your Side and Lions.
     
  13. jazz_case

    jazz_case Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colfax
    It was clear to me when they ditched the backup singers that this was going to be a streamlined cash-cow-cashing-in operation. Nevertheless, we went to a handful in the spring and then again in November/December. They were able to elevate for a memorable two nights at the Ryman in Nashville, certainly. But to my ear the tour's final shows on the west coast lacked the energy that the Midwest run in the spring enjoyed. Bringing in the Susan & Derek band to open (and blow TBC off the stage) for the final show was an interesting call. I suppose they needed the bigger bill to come close to filling the large Civic Center building, but the contrast between the two bands that night was striking to say the least. Sheesh.
    But Chicago and Nashville were both a helluva time, I guess that particular band didn't have a long run in em for obvious reasons in retrospect.
     
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  14. krisjay

    krisjay Psychedelic Wave Rider

    Location:
    Maine
    If more care isn't taken, compared to the first batch of reissues, why bother. SYMM is all but unlistenable, the rest, barely ok, at best.
     
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  15. wiseblood

    wiseblood Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston, MA, USA
    The "All Snowed In" tour of 98/99? And I'm not talking about the stuff falling from the sky today on the East Coast. Anytime the Black Crowes look like this, we have a loss.

    [​IMG]
     
  16. Nice friggin' slippers, Christopher.
     
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  17. hyde park

    hyde park Forum Resident

    Location:
    IL, USA

    Is that Gorman with Chris?
     
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  18. Bonddm

    Bonddm Forum Resident

    I’m tippin’ there was regularly a blizzard backstage on that tour!
     
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  19. wiseblood

    wiseblood Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston, MA, USA
    yep.
     
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  20. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    By Your Side is probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite Crowes album, depending on my mood at any given moment. It's really the rock n' roll follow-up to Southern Harmony.
     
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  21. wiseblood

    wiseblood Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston, MA, USA
    Well, we'll have to agree to disagree, sir.
     
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  22. hyde park

    hyde park Forum Resident

    Location:
    IL, USA
    They seem to be getting along fine in that pic...
     
  23. Randy5554

    Randy5554 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Birmingham, AL
    Those opening two songs are so great.
     
  24. I like the album for what it is, but without Marc Ford, I can't see it as a follow up to anything he participated in.
     
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  25. krlpuretone

    krlpuretone Forum Resident

    Location:
    Grantham, NH
    And that's why the return to the Crowes songs = needs a divorce check?
     
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