Artist: Rich Robinson
Album: Llama Blues
Bitrate: 209kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Eagle Rock
Genre: Rock
Size: 26.52 megs
PlayTime: 0h 16min 50sec total
Rip Date: 2016-03-30
Store Date: 2016-02-26
Track List:
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01. By The Light Of The Sunset Moon 3:59
02. Look Through My Window 3:54
03. Broken Stick Crown 4:05
04. Run Run 4:52
Release Notes:
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Now that it appears the Black Crowes ' divorce is final, guitarist Rich Robinson
can focus all of his attention on reviving a solo career that began in 2002, the
year he started recording Paper.
Ultimately released two years later, Paper û the colorful cover art painted by
Robinson himself û was an engaging, if occasionally messy, pastiche of different
genres, effortlessly blending country, blues, soul, pop and psychedelia in a
Southern-fried rock meal rich in diversity, skillful songwriting and tasty,
tantalizing guitar licks to savor long after devouring them.
Kept in a New Jersey storage facility, along with his gear, the 2-inch master
tapes for Paper were mangled by Hurricane Sandy's wrath, but there was a silver
lining. With Robinson initiating a reissue campaign through Eagle Rock
Entertainment for all of his solo outings û preparing the way for a new studio
album due out this spring û came an opportunity to record new vocals, do some
remastering and alter the sequencing for Paper. The results of those efforts,
including three previously unreleased tracks from the 2004 sessions, are found
on this reconfigured package due to drop Feb. 26, along with 2013's Llama Blues
EP. New versions of Through a Crooked Sun and the Woodstock Sessions will see
the light of day on April 15.
As for Paper, the warm sound of this expanded reissue is washed clean of
impurities, allowing the full instrumentation, pristine vocals and the buffed
chrome-plated sparkle of Robinson's electric guitar tone to shine through on the
rollicking opener "Know Me," while giving a slightly serrated edge to the sunny,
laid-back funk of "Enemy" and its strutting, tougher cousin "Stand Up." Even the
Exile On Main Street murk of "Words Of The Chosen," an instrumental carried by
gently rolling rhythms, has a certain clarity to it, while the crawl and stomp
of "Yesterday I Saw You" and the smoldering distortion of "Places" assume
pleasing and clearly defined shapes.
Falling from wistful '60s pop ("Walking By Myself") into a deep country blues
hole ("Forgiven Song") as a mournful violin saws away, Paper somehow manages to
avoid betraying its "south of Mason-Dixon line" heritage, that down-home twang
rarely leaving Robinson's beguiling guitar work. More amorphous and less
cohesive are the piano-based "Baby" and "Cause You're With Me," two drifting,
worn-out tracks whose lovely parts never seem to coalesce into actual songs. The
grand, Southern gothic vibe and undulating rhythms of "Answers," however, are
more congruous and structured, making for a wholly realized offering that seems
haunted by Townes Van Zandt.
Rich Robinson - Llama Blues
reissue 2016
Llama Blues was originally supposed to pair nicely with Through a Crooked Sun,
its traditional blues feel echoing that album's "Fire Around." Limited to 1,000
CDs, Llama Blues became a cult favorite û can it really boast of being so if
it's only three years old? û of Robinson's fans and it, too, is back on the
market.
Robinson's distorted singing adds grit and honky-tonk attitude to an organic and
thoroughly authentic û doing without any kind of slavish imitation û set of four
songs that build small shrines to the ghosts of the Mississippi Delta. Wild
harmonica blares through the Stones-y stutter of "By the Light of the Sunset
Moon," while Robinson deftly massages subtle slide guitar into a stomping "Look
Through My Window" and a slow burning, drawn-out "Broken Stick Crown." Stay for
"Run Run," a brooding closer with a stripped-down aesthetic that's earthy and
hard, but full of integrity.
While Paper is somewhat long and you wish it was the more charismatic Chris
Robinson singing on these records rather than his somewhat subdued brother, both
albums are well worth revisiting. Though not as immediately rewarding or as
transcendent as the best stuff from the Crowes' catalog, their charms stick
around for a while and make good company.