CD Review

Ken Kesey is behind the wheel of a Technicolor bus, with Rich Robinson riding shotgun and the merry pransksters dancing in the aisles. In complete control- they slam the antique Bluebird into an antebellum mansion and scuff the majestic white columns with Day-Glo paint. The sleepy plantation was not prepared for this surly behavior, nonetheless, the boys make themselves at home in the parlor sipping curious lemonade.

Let’s get this out of the way. Yes this is the Rich Robinson, ex-Black Crowe. But this association will be mentioned less as he steps from that dimming spotlight into a sunbeam on his inaugural solo release, Paper (Keyhole Records). In addition to the aforementioned psychedelic and Southern themes and influences at home on this pensive journey through his world, it becomes apparent that for good and (not too) bad Rich picked up a few Apple Records in his youth- and perhaps just prior to cutting Paper.

See “Know Me” for can’t miss clues and secret seasonings as a Brit rock rub meets Partridge Family harmonies in a crunchy Schoolhouse Rock vein. The ghost of George Harrison drifts through the bus doors and into the mansion, floating up the spiral staircase.

A psychedelic tinge resonates throughout the record. “It’s Over” and “Oh No” are not streets of sixties San Francisco White Rabbit rip-offs. Instead they’re fresh and contemporary, with a subtle nod in the direction of classics like White Smoke and Sassafras. On “When You Will” the psychedelia is organic creating a realm unlike any other drum circle, “When you will love me / you will see / loneliness will soon be broken.”

As for those Southern traces, check out “Enemy” and “Veil” and “Begin” for evidence of what the Black Crowes could have sounded like without crooning brother Chris, the ever stoney 70’s hipster and lucky sumbitch hubby to Kate, and bassist Johnny Colt. [Quick aside: have you heard his latest musical endeavor, Asphalt Blaster? As if the sound wasn’t ridiculous enough I’m pretty sure it was either Beavis or Butthead that got to name the band]…Come to think of it, without these two it wouldn’t be the Black Crowes or over-the-top Southern at all…Exactly.

Let’s hope rumors of the Crowes reunion are unfounded and Rich is okay with a smaller paycheck in smaller venues playing his intriguing blend of Birmingham, England meets a field of caps outside of Birmingham, Alabama brand of psychedlia.