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So, they say that music is over but maybe that's because it's what the industry turned it into. Those of us who've fallen through the cracks have made our own place. And you know what? That place is what this record sounds like." -Chris Robinson |
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Photo by Jay Blakesberg
One Mirror Too Many
The Black Crowes may forever be dogged by comparisons to past classic rock acts. What's largely misunderstood about them is how they draw from the spirit and tone of earlier artists they admire but consciously strive to create something of their own, even within a realm as naturally and necessarily derivative as rock 'n' roll.
 The Black Crowes by Jay Blakesberg |
"I'm always singing to the people like me, the ones who do believe in music," Chris says. "That's why I listen to so much music, whether it's classical Ottoman music or Bill Monroe or Miles Davis or whatever. Texturally, it all fits into what our lives could be and the things we share – the good parts, the fun parts, the sad parts, the longing."
"When people would compare us to the Stones I'd think, 'Have you heard Amorica?' There's nothing like the Stones on there, and the same thing is true for Three Snakes, where they still kept comparing us to the Stones," adds Rich. "When you're younger that shit matters, then you realize, 'fuck it. People get it or they don't.' The people who don't will never understand us."
"I've never really understood The Faces thing. We never had that 'good times' feel," says Chris. "The Faces were kind of silly at times. They had great stuff and Rod Stewart was a fucking incredible talent at the time, but our band has always had an art school leaning to our fuckin' country rock, psychedelic, blues vibe."
Despite a penchant for AC/DC, who the band once saluted with an opening set on Halloween with the Crowes dressed in Angus schoolboy attire, there's remarkably little bloke/pub rock feel to what the Crowes do. When they crank it up things tend to get seriously weird or just plain nasty. For them, amplification isn't a sledgehammer, it's a finely tuned power drill, boring holes in facades and letting the dark matter inside burble up.
"It's very ambitious music. We want people to listen to it, but we're just in a better place," remarks Chris. "If some radio station or any format or genre anyplace wants to play our music we're grateful and humbled by that. But, we're not going to be anything we're not to make that happen."
"Coming out of the '80s, we came from a place of The Replacements mindset," says Steve Gorman. "We made Shake Your Moneymaker but we weren't thinking about things the way the Stones or The Faces or anyone else they said we were ripping off did. We thought we were The Replacements. It was fun, a little stupid, but real. I wanted to be in a band. I never wanted to be a musician. That's The Replacements thing."
"We've never been interested in having a Top 40 record. We've never been interested in changing the way we looked or sounded to fit into modern rock or whatever people thought that was. To me, it's just silly. I like some pop music but that's not what I am and that's not what we are. It's not what we were and it's not what we're going to be," asserts Chris. "It's all about living it. I always felt that even as a kid. I'm not impressed with easy answers, and I'm not impressed with somebody else pretending their decision would behoove me. I'm not letting people who don't live MY life tell me how to be an artist or how to be creative, and especially how to make music. I have no one to answer to but the muse itself."
Dirty Hair Halo
 Rich Robinson by Jay Blakesberg |
Since returning to extensive touring in early 2005, the Crowes have garnered a sizable following in the jam band scene, but in truth they're a pedigreed hard rock band with a weakness for extrapolation. Their jam rep began in earnest when they played the 1997 Further Festival alongside Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Hot Tuna and other stalwarts of the tie-dye mafia. They stuck out like a nudist at a Promise Keepers rally.
"It was definitely a change for us. We delved more into the jamming aspect of it, which hadn't been there as much before. It was definitely a transitional thing but as a band all these different approaches gave us a shot to get into it more," recalls Rich. "However, playing like that during the Further Festival, we came out of it wanting to make rock 'n' roll records."
Another thing, besides their occasional forays into uncharted instrumental waters, that's endeared them to the jam world is their freak-streak, which surfaces like aromatic lubrication in the hips of their extended takes on Otis Redding's "Hard To Handle" (which would echo Pigpen-era Grateful Dead on some nights) and new cuts like "We Who See The Deep."
"That's part of playing in those mid-tempo places. That's where a lot of funk and R&B was born, whether it's The Meters, the Isley Brothers or Funkadelic," observes Chris. "It's called backbeat everybody. Don't let your computers tell you where the 'one' is."
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