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Free at last
With New Earth Mud, Chris Robinson goes solo
BY TOM KIELTY

Very few things are of more value to Chris Robinson than freedom. It’s what drove him, like so many other American teenagers, to form a rock-and-roll band as a kid growing up in Atlanta — in this case a volatile, rootsy outfit with his more reserved brother Rich on guitar. That band, the Black Crowes, went on to sell millions of records, collaborate on a tour and a live CD with one of their heroes, Jimmy Page, and become a fertile creative battleground for Rich and Chris. So it’s understandable that after 18 years of duking it out in the Black Crowes, Chris Robinson would once again find himself searching for freedom, a search that took the form of a solo project earlier this year.

"Part of the thing about a band like the Black Crowes is that it just starts to become filled with rules," he admitted when we talked backstage during his most recent visit to the Paradise. "You know, ‘We don’t sound like that and we don’t do this.’ You get older, and you’re stuck with those rules, and everybody has their own shit to deal with . . . "

So Robinson hooked up with long-time Pearl Jam manager Kelley Curtis and made the album he says he’d always wanted to, the one where he didn’t have to follow anybody else’s rules. Not that he’s forsaken the Black Crowes — he’s the first to acknowledge how fortunate he is to have the group. "I’m pretty hardcore about what I want, but I also realize that there are other talented people and that I’ve been very blessed to be surrounded by them in the Black Crowes."

The same can be said for Robinson on New Earth Mud (Redline Entertainment). One of those talented people is Paul Stacey, a jazz guitarist whose production credits include working with Oasis on their 2000 album Standing on the Shoulders of Giants (Sony). Oasis leader Noel Gallagher introduced Robinson to Stacey in London, and when Robinson learned that his wife, actress Kate Hudson, would be filming in Paris, he seized the opportunity to collaborate with Stacey. "We were moving to Paris for three months, and I figured it was the perfect scenario. We found a little funky studio with all the good analog outboard gear — you walk in and you can hear the dust in there. It just worked out in terms of timing, and I was ready with the material for the album."

That material, which formed the foundation of New Earth Mud, draws on a more diverse range of influences than the Black Crowes do. Yet it’s still a classic, rootsy rock tour, one that takes into account Robinson’s fondness for the eccentric jazz saxist Rahsaan Roland Kirk and the eclectic Incredible String Band as well as usual suspects like Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and Bobby Womack. Its mix of jazz and rock resembles nothing so much as a mid-’70s Jerry Garcia solo album. And like Garcia without the Dead, Robinson was able to pursue all his interests without reservation. "It’s just things that I like that have become me over the years." That includes his fondness for psychedelic-era effects, like the harpsichord that turns up on "Fables" and the breezy Byrdsy melodies that bolster the trippy "Better Than the Sun." Although Stacey is there to provide as much tasteful guitar playing as the tunes need, Robinson opts for a folkier, more acoustic setting than the Black Crowes have generally favored. It’s a surprisingly comfortable fit for Robinson’s gutsy vocal delivery.

In the meantime, he confirms that the Crowes are in an "indefinite hiatus." "I think it’s fair to say, ‘We’ll see what happens,’ " he says when I bring up the band who’ve been his rock-and-roll home for almost two decades. "Is it easy to look in the future and say my brother and I will never play music again? I don’t know if that’s really real. It will just happen when it happens."

For now, Robinson is dealing with the limitations that even a bandleader faces. "I really did believe in this kind of twisted idea of freedom," he admits, "and then I realized that it’s not true freedom until everybody’s taking care of everybody else." He pauses and smiles. "Hey, I drove up here in a van," he says with a hearty laugh. "I’m just having a good time."

Chris Robinson and New Earth Mud perform at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel in Providence this Friday, December 13. Call (401) 831-4071.

Issue Date: December 12 - 19, 2002
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