A song-based guitar hero with deep blues
and classic-rock roots uses open tunings,
s, con c nst uments, and stud o
spontane t to define h msel on Flux.
BY ADAM PERLMUTTER
Photo by Alysse Gafkjen
I
n the late 1980s, as hair metal bands placed a premium on pyrotechnical guitar work and just before
grunge acts took a decidedly less polished approach
to music, a group with an altogether different
modus operandi emerged from the Atlanta suburbs.
From their inception, the Black Crowes—founded by
singer Chris Robinson and his brother, Rich Robinson—
established themselves as purveyors of the blues-rock that
had waned in popularity during previous decades.
Over the course of eight studio albums, beginning
with 1990’s Shake Your Money Maker, and various
personnel changes and intermittent hiatuses, Rich
Robinson served as one of the Crowes’ primary musical
architects. He has consistently drawn uncanny textures
on both electric and acoustic guitar through the use of
nonstandard tunings, and his classic riffs, plucked from
the lexicon of Southern rock, propelled early Crowes hits
like “Hard to Handle” and “She Talks to Angels.”
Robinson stepped out as a leader with his 2004 solo
debut, Paper. On his latest album, Flux, the guitarist and
singer-songwriter branches further out, building on his
Southern-rock roots with excursions into psychedelic
and jam-band territory. At the same time, Eagle Rock
Records has just released expanded editions of select
offerings from Robinson’s solo catalog: Paper, Llama
Blues (2011), Through a Crooked Sun (2011), and The
Woodstock Sessions (2014).
In between being a guest guitarist with Bad Company
this year and kicking off his own tour in support of
Flux, Robinson told us about the creative processes at
work in his music and the gear he used to get killer
tones on his new album. He also reaffirmed his January
announcement that the Black Crowes are over.
68 PREMIER GUITAR SEPTEMBER 2016
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