CHRIS ROBINSON | 05.19 & 05.20 | BIG SUR

Listen to The Black Crowes on Rhapsody…

Words by: Dennis Cook :: Images by: Magnus Torén

Chris Robinson’s Wooden Family
05.19.07 :: Fernwood Resort :: Big Sur, CA
05.20.07 :: Henry Miller Library :: Big Sur, CA

“Hello, beautiful day people,” grinned an especially hirsute Chris Robinson, fresh from a shopping trip to Caftans ‘R’ Us. “It’s different from the scary and foreboding night time people.”

Chris Robinson’s Wooden Family :: 05.20 :: Big Sur

On furlough from the Black Crowes, Robinson smiled warmly behind his sunglasses as he took his Wooden Family and a sunshine fine audience through hypnotic, electrified folk corridors. Robinson hadn’t performed without his brother Rich since his Fall 2005 run with Phil Lesh, and the last New Earth Mud shows were July 2004. There’s a different hue to his rainbow outside of his usual collaborators, something more burnished and breezy. One senses they’re seeing him in his natural habitat. Shedding all rock star trappings, he divines a more direct route to his muse, where a few instruments and earnest voices weave and rise with winged grace.

The two performances in this Northern California woodland enclave were indeed night and day. Where Saturday evening found a fractious, booze addled wall against this gentle music, Sunday was as sweet and intimate a glimpse of a truly exceptional singer/songwriter as one could want.

Saturday

Entance :: 05.20 :: Big Sur

Long before Robinson took the ramshackle stage at the Fernwood one sensed this wasn’t going to be a smooth ride. Unlike his big city gigs where Crowes/Mud faithful line up early, this pseudo-roadhouse was heavy on locals looking for a party. It’s a peculiar arrangement where a few dozen people can cram in front of the low stage and the rest peer over their heads or watch the big screen monitor in the back. Behind the performers looms a large wooden silhouette of what looks like a resplendent satyr playing panpipes. Filled to capacity, the room never stilled during opener Currituck County (aka Kevin Barker of Aden). Solo, Barker did his damndest to get his fine Bert Jansch-esque acoustic thang across but the chatter only amped up to drown him out. Only those within a few feet of him were attentive – a dynamic that sadly continued through Robinson’s set.

Maybe it’s just that delicacy is a dying virtue, maybe it’s because Robinson fronts a big rock machine with radio hits or maybe some folks don’t know when to shut up, but the test of wills with the Wooden Family hit within a single song. After easing into things with a relaxed “Eagles On The Highway,” the trio of Robinson (vocals, acoustic guitar), NEM bassist George Reiff and mystery factor Jonathan Wilson (electric guitar, vocals) paused so Chris could suggest the talkers go outside so those who’d come for the music could enjoy it. His tone was brisk but not rude, and from the back someone yelled, “Shut up and play some music, you prick!” Sadly, this heckling yahoo wasn’t alone.

Chris Robinson’s Wooden Family :: 05.20 :: Big Sur

In response, they dove into an edgy version of the Grateful Dead’s “New Speedway Boogie,” which inspired some to really punch the line, “One way or another, this darkness got to give!” Making no inroad with the noisy audience, a frustrated Robinson barked, “We can do this all night.”

What the noisemakers missed was a pile of brand new Robinson compositions, juicy covers and heartfelt readings of earlier solo material. The trio brought a fresh touch to everything, the instrumentation and mood echoing the great drumless John Mayall bands of the early ’70s. He debuted two originals (“Tomorrow Blues,” “Clear Blue Skies”) that sounded like a hypothetical collaboration between Fred Neil and Doug Sahm, and had a first time go at Gene Clark’s “Here Without You” that even with the hubbub gave one chills. Mud faves “Silver Car” and “Someday Past The Sunset” raised a smile, and Robinson reconfirmed his status as a premiere Dylan interpreter with “Nothing Was Delivered” and “He Was A Friend Of Mine.”

Chris Robinson’s Wooden Family :: 05.20 :: Big Sur

Throughout, Wilson proved a serious revelation, a guitarist of abounding texture and space with a knack for avoiding anything approaching the predictable. Sans percussion save for suede boots on bare wood, Wilson’s invention and Reiff’s endlessly limber, luxurious bass managed to glow despite everything. Wilson sang lead on a circuitous tripper that eventually wove in a classic folk line used on Pentangle’s “The Cuckoo” and Doc Watson‘s “Coo Coo Bird.” Always fun to hear tradition updated. Wilson has a terrific pop-folk album, Frankie Ray, hitting stores in June. It’s one of those song cycles that crawls inside your head and stays, shimmering like a hybrid of Jon Brion (Aimee Mann, The Grays), Van Morrison and Gordon Lightfoot. Aces!

They closed with hootenanny runs at Waylon Jennings’s “Too Far Gone” and Dylan’s “You Ain’t Going Nowhere,” the Rolling Thunder Revue vibe made even stronger by the addition of Barker and Andy Cabic (Vetiver), who both sat in with Robinson on Sunday, too. Cabic and Barker also joined them earlier for a sweet reading of the Johnny Cash favorite “Long Black Veil.” Robinson introduced the encore, saying, “We’re sitting on logs! We just want to sit on some fuckin’ logs and play some songs and make someone lose their mind.” Amen, psychedelic minstrel.

Sunday

Chris Robinson’s Wooden Family :: 05.20 :: Big Sur

The lawn at the wonderfully bohemian Henry Miller Memorial Library filled early with kids and tie-dye weekend warriors. Smiles and a palpable good spirit infused the day before a single note rang out. It’s a rare thing to catch an artist like Robinson in a tiny outdoor venue like this but the Library has a long history of support from big names like Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson and Henry Rollins. Mayhap, like us, they’re attracted by the faint odor of Miller’s grand, poetic earthiness. I raised a glass as Currituck Co. came on, using Miller’s favorite toast, “Always merry and bright.”

On electric guitar this time but still flying solo, Barker showed off more of his cool picking, a West Coast relative to crusty, finger-twisting Brits like Jansch, Richard Thompson and John Renbourn flecked with the spacious cool of The Durutti Column. Barker’s rambles are peppered with lines you’ll want to share with others (“Take another stab to quiet the winds in your mind” or “You can’t evade a vengeful god at judgment time” or more oddly, “Where is my best friend? Where are my feet?”). Highway winds and electrical storms danced from his fingers as he offered up one pleasing number after another.

Entance :: 05.20 :: Big Sur

Second opener Entrance was a shock to the system. A bit of a thing in the L.A. underground, Entrance gussies up Blue Cheer sludge raunch with a greater helping of politics and softheaded philosophizing. Once one adjusted to the volume and stage antics it was kinda charming. The trio, like many attendees, looked like a touring company for the musical Hair had rolled into town. A good deal darker and heavier than the Cheer, Entrance (both the main guy’s name and the band’s tag) evokes memories of Japan’s High Rise and Boris, a compelling, sometimes silly barbarian crush that gets the job done.

The Wooden Family, clearly in much better spirits, kicked off with “Cut From The Shadows,” a corker first played on last year’s Brothers Of Feather tour. The opening verse is classic Robinson poetics:

Blue star woman
Snow country child
Wind chime whisper
Black cherry smile

Chris Robinson’s Wooden Family 05.20 :: Big Sur

By the time they coasted into “Like A Tumbleweed In Eden” – a spiritual for non-church kids – the whole space resonated with an artful calm conjured by Reiff, Robinson and Wilson, who all continued to be ever so bloody tasty at every turn. “Acoustic instruments and you can hear them and everything,” snickered Robinson.

The parents holding infants teared up and kissed the heads of their youngsters during an emotional take on Dylan’s “Forever Young,” just one of many emotionally unguarded moments. One felt invited into Robinson’s creative mind as the shade crept over the cross-legged fans at his feet and the wind kissed the afternoon sun goodbye.

The new tunes are uniformly great, the work of a honky tonk bard comfortable in his skin. Here’s a few snippets to tide you over until they hopefully surface on a new album Robinson is working on with Wilson, tentatively scheduled for Fall:

(From “Help Yourself)

Help yourself to my tender cup
Drink your plenty
If it’s empty I will fill it up

(From “Clear Blue Sky”)

If you find yourself
In a boxcar, baby
You got some rails to ride

(From “Tomorrow Blues”)

I been on the road so long
My shoes have turned to sand
Lookin’ for a good time girl
Who understands

Chris Robinson :: 05.20 :: Big Sur

Robinson also premiered a modern sea shanty called “Star Crossed Lonely Sailor” that’d make a great epilogue to Procol Harum’s A Salty Dog. The standout cover on Sunday was Gene Clark‘s “Polly” (which also appears on the upcoming Brothers Of A Feather DVD/CD coming this Summer). The former Byrd always brings out the most wistful, aching parts of Robinson, which in turns inspires his companions to dig deep. Mud classic “Mother Of Stone” had a knotted Topanga Canyon blues feel befitting Robinson’s recent SoCal residence, where he’s been recording and producing others including the long awaited solo record from Jayhawks leader Gary Louris.

The festivities drew to a close with an absolutely perfect “Driving Wheel” that drew heavily from Tom Rush‘s self-titled 1970 album where Robinson first picked up the David Wiffen tune that’s been memorably covered by the Cowboy Junkies and Roger McGuinn. A mixture of insecurity and freedom, “Driving Wheel” sent us on our way with these words ringing in our ears:

You can’t say much in a phone call, babe
You know how it is
I have to tell you one sure thing
Oh, won’t you listen to this
I want to tell you that I love you, babe
I want to tell you just how I feel

And that’s just what Robinson and his Wooden Family had done. The tenderness and gentle truth of this combination makes me hope they have more than a few family reunions in the days ahead.

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