Elevation Worship Do It Again Vocalist
The Black Crowes brought a different kind of party to the Stagecoach country music festival Mane Stage, lighting up the crowd with rock 'n' roll, boogie woogie and R&B on Sunday.
The Atlanta band joins a small list of rock acts to perform on the Mane Stage such as The Eagles and former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty. Not even Southern rock icons Lynyrd Skynyrd or the Charlie Daniels Band received the honor in previous years, instead playing the Palomino tent to crowds beyond capacity.
They played a combination of their loud rock jams such as "Kickin' My Heart Around" and "Jealous Again" and slower tunes "She Talks To Angels." Frontman Chris Robinson paid homage to soul singer Otis Redding before performing their cover of 1968 song "Hard to Handle."
It made sense to feature a rock band that sold millions of records on the Mane Stage. But Chris Robinson told The Desert Sun ahead of their performance "We're not mountain climbers, we're sherpas" and said performing at Stagecoach is "uncharacteristic" for the band.
"But in the same way, why wouldn't The Black Crowes play this festival?" Robinson said. "We're lucky to be where we are. It's not about hero worship, it's about movement and people feeling it. We've gone through a lot of different movements and phases that people would be interested in."
He talked about going to see the punk rock band X a few years ago and said guitarist Billy Zoom had the "best guitar sound" and described vocalist Exene Cervenka as a "goddess."
Stagecoach 2022 live updates: Mike Love joins LOCASH for 'Beach Boys,' photos of the party in the campground
"For an hour and a half, I was in their world," Robinson said. "That's what I want and that's the Everest. We're already in that elevation and we're trying to help everyone get to the peak without something horrible happening."
The band is on their third reunion
Since they arrived on the scene in the early '90s, Robinson and his brother Rich have feuded over the years. The band got its start in 1984 and have been on two hiatuses and are on their third reunion. Robinson said the pair have been "super" since reuniting in 2019.
"I'm a horribly dyslexic person who invented my own world to live in through art, music, poetry, cinema and literature. My brother is OCD and a wacko," Robinson said. "Music used to be for people like us, the outsiders."
The Black Crowes launched like a rocket when their debut album "Shake Your Money Maker" was released in 1990, capturing the same rock 'n' roll sound of The Rolling Stones and Faces incorporated with blues, R&B, soul and honky-tonk sounds.
The album brought back the '60s rock sound to Generation X featuring the singles "Hard to Handle," heavy originals "Twice As Hard" and "Jealous Again," and the acoustic track "She Talks To Angels."
"Shake Your Money Maker" went on to sell 5 million copies. To promote the album, they toured with ZZ Top, but were fired from the tour after Robinson made comments against the tour sponsor, Miller Brewing, over their attempts to censor the band. They joined metal bands Metallica, AC/DC, Mötley Crüe and Queensryche on the European Monsters of Rock Tour, playing to a crowd of over 1 million people in the Soviet Union.
Even as alternative music bands such as Nirvana pushed a lot of groups and artists in heavy metal and classic rock out of the mainstream, The Black Crowes continued to be successful performing on big stages and their 1992 album "The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion" went on to produce four singles and sell millions of copies.
"It's funny, in 1992 when grunge was starting to take hold, 'The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion' still debuts at #1 on the Billboard charts," Robinson said. "We felt a kinship with a lot of those (alternative and grunge) bands because of where we came from being punk rock kids and (following) the American hardcore scene bands. To us, the most punk rock thing we could do is start wearing bell bottoms when no one else was."
One band carrying on in the same tradition is Dirty Honey, who toured with The Black Crowes last summer that included a stop at the Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado.
Dirty Honey frontman Marc LaBelle told The Desert Sun last February Robinson was "very vocal" about giving advice, telling them what to do or how to go about living the lifestyle as a touring musician.
"The PG version (of Robinson's advice) is to live a full life, because that's going to give you something to write about, and don't be afraid to say yes, a lot, and when you need to, say no. But mostly to say yes, especially if you think you want to do something. That's his M.O," LaBelle said.
On May 4, The Black Crowes will release the EP "1972" on Amazon Music featuring six covers such as The Temptations' "Papa Was A Rolling Stone," David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream," T. Rex's "The Slider," Rod Stewart's "You Wear It Well," Little Feat's "Easy To Slip" and The Rolling Stones' "Rocks Off."
Robinson said their cover of "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" came out "great" with hints of their influences from Parliament Funkadelic, Mother's Finest and War.
"How do you mess around with the Stones, Marc Bolan, Bowie, The Temptations, Rod Stewart and Little Feat? We're not going to do something that we're not and we can't sound just like it, but we want to give it its due, respect and the same way we approached playing the Led Zeppelin catalog with Jimmy Page."
When asked if he's softened his positions on corporate sponsorship and whether it's difficult to navigate today's music industry rife with corporations such as Amazon and Apple getting more involved, Robinson described himself as a "capitalist" and said he's turned down a lot of lucrative offers for various things over the years.
"Maybe I should have taken it sometimes," Robinson quipped. "Amazon has been great. We had freedom and no one said 'Do that, do this.' We hate authority, it's hard to get us through TSA at the airport and it's like 'What do you mean? I took my belt off.'"
For fans hoping there will be more new material, Robinson said they plan to return to the studio early next year to record a new album.
"For the first time in our lives, we have this great team around us that wants to nourish our relationship," Robinson said. "They want to be there for us. We not just a prizefighter or a racehorse anymore. I think it's about whatever way is best to make a joyous noise and get it out there."
Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment for the Desert Sun. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or on Twitter at @bblueskye.
Source: https://www.desertsun.com/story/life/entertainment/music/stagecoach/2022/05/01/stagecoach-2022-black-crowes-bring-rock-mane-stage/9571236002/
0 Response to "Elevation Worship Do It Again Vocalist"
Post a Comment