Black Crowes Bare Souls For Futher
By Gary Graff
Wall Of Sound
June, 1997
| This year's edition of the Furthur
Festival is set to kick off Friday in West Palm Beach, Florida, and the
tour's headliners--the Black Crowes--have been preparing not only in the
rehearsal hall but also in the recording studio. Guitarist Rich Robinson
reports that he and his brother, Crowes singer Chris Robinson, have worked
up about twenty-five songs and he says that the group has already done some
recording for what will be its fifth album. "I guess we say this all the
time, but . . . I think it's a different direction for us," Robinson says.
"Every record we sort of change. It's not like a forced thing; it's sort of
natural. Like 'Wow, these are cool.' Like, 'I didn't think we could write these types of songs.'" What's the new sound like? "Just really soulful," he says. "It was effortless to write these songs. I can take a year on a song, but these songs literally just came out and they're done and they don't need anything. They're great to me." Robinson says the Crowes hope to have the album out by late fall or in early 1998. They've talked with John Mellencamp's guitarist Mike Wanchic about producing (he also helmed the Why Store's album), but no decisions have been made yet. Robinson did say the Crowes would likely play some of the new songs during the Furthur shows and during a North American theater tour the group plans for the fall. Meanwhile, the Crowes are looking forward to the Furthur dates. Robinson, who admits that he's not a die-hard Deadhead, says the group enjoyed opening for the Grateful Dead and feels a kinship with its musical spirit. "I think the one thing the Dead has done is they've always done their own thing," he says. "They did it just for the love of it, instead of cashing in and trying to do big tours. Ultimately it turned into that, as more and more people came to see them. But I still don't think they ever strayed from the original ideas. And I think that is sort of what we're about, too." |