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Crowes still fly high

Complete Interview

By Steven Patrick

Influential American blues-rock bands are few and far between from the late 70s on. One exception to that general rule has been the Black Crowes. The Crowes, led creatively by brothers Chris and Rich Robinson, have been the standard bearers of blues rock in America since the release of their debut album "Shake Your Money Maker" in 1989. There's been line-up changes over the years, but the music quality has never diminished because this is a band that put the music where it should be: first.

Recently, the Crowes played to a packed house at The LC with singer/songwriter Jackie Green and Bob Weir - of Grateful Dead guitar fame - & RatDog. The Crowes once again put on an amazing show, with Chris Robinson's vocals being in particularly fine form. Highlights from the night involved Robinson appearing in each of the evening's sets. During Greene's set, Robinson lent vocals on the Dead tune "Sugaree" and got a great reaction from the crowd just by walking on the stage. Then later on during Weir's set, Robinson again appeared, this time to trade vocals on the Beatle's cover "Dear Prudence," which should have been more rehearsed. Despite missing his cue several times, Robinson's enthusiasm compensated and made it one of the most memorable moments of the night.

The Crowes took the stage around 9:30 p.m. and opened with a bluesy, harp-driven version "Good Friday" off their 1996 "Three Snakes and One Charm" album. This crowd had been mellowed out by the Weather Channel-esque jams of Weir & RatDog, so for much of the audience the Crowes' set was a wake-up call. The set was a healthy mix of tunes from the most recent album "Warpaint" and more obscure Crowes tracks like "Hotel Illness." Bob Weir joined the band on stage for some transcendent versions of "The Dolphins" and Dylan's "Girl From the North Country." The funky new single "I Ain't Hiding" was also included in the set. The track comes from the Black Crowes' upcoming release "Before the Frost..." which comes out September 1st. With purchase of that album, fans will get the second part of the two album set, "...Until the Freeze," free for download.

All in all, the Black Crowes demonstrated yet again that blues rock is a relevant musical genre and that they are the perfect band to deliver it. Founding member and drummer, Steve Gorman was kind enough to take the time to speak with UWeekly concerning the tour, new album, and the upcoming 20th anniversary of the band:

UW: What can we expect during the set? Any hints on cover tunes?
Steve Gorman: I think the overall feeling this year, and looking ahead to next year, is it being 20 years since our first album. I think we've always done a lot of covers, but I think we're [going] for the first time ... [to] try to take a look at the entirety of what we've done so far and focusing more on our own catalog.

UW: Are you excited about having Levon Helm of The Band opening for the Crowes in a few weeks?
SG: I imagine it's going to be pretty fantastic. I mean, we've all been huge fans of his for so long and then we just made our new record at his studio up in Woodstock at his barn, so we got to know him a little bit up there. Those are times when we're no different than anybody else. We just become absolute starry-eyed fans like anybody ... and so I can't wait to see him play a few nights. To be able to be that close and watch him is going to be a great joy for me.

UW: So Levon's a big influence on your playing?
SG: Oh absolutely. I've ripped off every single thing he ever did. No drummer can play and sing like that. He's such a musical drummer. He sets down the template for any music he's playing on.

UW: What do you think about sharing the stage with Bob Weir?
SG: We've toured with him in 1997 and personally he's a good guy and easy to hang with, [he's] a lot of fun to be around. I think that ultimately he's a big piece of one of the more iconic American bands of all time. You know, Grateful Dead fan or not ... there's no getting away from the significance on American music for about thirty years. They're a huge part of what we've tried to do as far as just being a band that's constantly exploring new avenues. You know, our entire perspective on the industry changed in the early 90s when we went to see some Dead shows for the first time. It really gave us the courage to just focus on the music and let a lot of the other stuff that we had been caught up in as a young band kind [of] go by the wayside.

UW: The new album title is a little bizarre. Where did that come from?
SG: That came from somewhere deep within the mind of Chris Robinson, I believe.

UW: How are song-writing duties handled within the band?
SG: Well, like on this album, Chris and Rich got together with our producer Paul Stacey a couple weeks ahead of everybody getting up there and they both have songs or at least ideas of songs, pieces and the three of them ... sit in a room where it's nice and quiet without a bunch of other people there and actually hammer out the songs. So we would get acoustic versions of songs every day just to give a sense of what they are, but then when everyone gets to the studio, we just pick it up one at a time. Everybody throws their ideas out and we start working on it. Generally, at this point, the band ... we find where the song is going pretty quickly. There's not a lot of spoken conversation, there's just a lot of looks and grunts. For anyone watching, they probably have no idea what we're even talking about.

UW: Why do you think the Black Crowes have been around for two decades?
SG: A lot of it goes back to the fact that that's just how we always assumed it would be. We just assumed we'd be around for a long time. We never said, 'Let's do a grand scheme.' We never saw our band as moving through phases and it's pretty easy to look back now ... I think for the first time we are looking back ... and you realize that our records, for better or worse, all are a very realistic portrait of what we're doing and where we are ... good, bad, ugly ... whatever. We've kept our shoulder to the wheel or whatever and then you look up and it's been 20 years.

Originally Published: July 8, 2009

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