Dateline Atlanta: Chris and Rich Robinson, along with a gaggle of family, crew members, and hangers on, lounge in the back of a cheesy trailer a few hours before headlining a massive outdoor show in front of a hometown crowd. People enter and exit the trailer quickly and frequently like ants, but the Robinson brothers seem content to kick back. Chris, long and slender beneath a Grizzly Adams beard, lays back on a double bed, and Rich, perhaps a little less mellow, leans against the doorframe. It appears that the turbulent, much-publicized days of sibling rivalry and in-fighting are all but over. Now the two, talented and ambitious, can concentrate on what they do best: making music.

The Crowes' latest album, Three Snakes And One Charm, is the band's best set yet, combining the classic rock and roll of their first two records with the intensity and sprawl of Amorica. Rich, along with lead guitarist Marc Ford, comprise a formidable tandem with Ford dishing out sharp, thoughtful leads and a much-improved Robinson laying down a solid rhythmic backbone.

"Rich has a thing about admitting how much better his prowess has gotten on guitar," says brother Chris, willing to insert his own words where his brother's won't do, "because that would take away from how much his songwriting has improved. He's being falsely humble."

Rich speaks for Marc, who's not in the trailer. "Marc knows so much about the guitar, so many different styles, anything you have to play he'll play. He plays off me really well, because I'm in alternate tunings and I make up a lot of chords. But he stays right with me."

Chris adds, laughing: "He can play you the difference between B.B. King, Albert King, and Freddy King!" Rich Robinson's skills both as a player and as a songwriter have grown considerably. Where his early work derived more from the classic rock of the Stones and the Faces, his newer material burrows a niche of its own. Has he grown up? What has he learned lately?

"Growing up and learning are two different things," Rich says. "Yeah, I think I've grown up, but I think we still have plenty to learn. To me I've grown more as a songwriter . . . I can play more shit on the guitar, and that helps me write better songs."

"There is a blues base to Rich's playing," Chris explains. "I think you can hear that classic Duane Allman/Clapton kind of sound [in it.] Rich's modal tunings and the way he hears things-although the first record was a lot of open G and rock and roll stuff-is not as blues derivative as it was."

Now Rich prefers to pattern his style after the likes of more sophisticated, folkier rockers like Dylan, Clarence White, Richard Thompson, and Nick Drake.

"I was playing guitar for about a year when Chris first played me Nick Drake's 'Time Of No Reply,'" Rich remembers. "Then I got The Fruit Tree box set. [Drake's] actually the reason why I got into open tunings. It sounded so cool and so textural. That kind of playing allows for a lot more inventiveness. It's a new way to approach writing." According to the brothers, only three tracks on the new record are in regular tunings, "Blackberry," "Good Friday," and "Better When You're Not Alone." The rest are open, and it's that "anything goes" philosophy that has kept The Black Crowes effectively changing with the times.

"When I write a song now," says Rich, "I write it a lot longer than I have to, to see how it flows. Then I go back and see what I can cut out to make it a solid piece. The song kind of realizes itself that way."

"And when we play live," Chris adds, "we can stretch that song any way we want. We never play the same set list, and we rarely play the song the same on different night. Some nights we'll play some happy rock, some open G-aggressive thing, and other nights we'll start with a ballad. It all depends on where we want to go."