The Black Crowes:  The Recording of "Three Snakes
 And One Charm"

Chris Robinson: vocals
Rich Robinson: vocals, guitars
Steve Gorman: drums
Johnny Colt: bass
Marc Ford: guitars
Eddie Hawrysch: keyboards

"This life, this life aches
And this life moans
This life, this life is great
And it's better when you're
Not alone"
--"Better When You're Not Alone,"
from THREE SNAKES AND ONE CHARM

Throughout Three Snakes and One Charm, their most powerful work yet, the Black Crowes create a sound and sensibility that could only come from them -- a mix of tradition and decadence, a place where blues, country, soul, bluegrass, gospel and psychedelia are boldly sculpted by the band into something that is urgent and modern in both musical presentation and attitude. The diverse yet seamless 12-song-album -- built on the solid songwriter partnership of Chris and Rich Robinson -- crystallizes elements of the band's three previous records, while creating a new sound that is at once fresh and adventurous. The rock that rolls The Black Crowes in timeless, timely and infused with an unshakable spirit and imbued with individuality and experimentation. As Rolling Stone noted of their previous album, amorica: "Their swagger intact and their musical inventiveness progressing, The Black Crowes are evolving like the great bands they respect."

"amorica was definitely an intense record," relates singer/lyricist Chris Robinson of his group's million-selling and critically acclaimed 1994 American Recordings release. "Three Snakes and One Charm isn't complacent, just more warm, focused and positive. Probably for the first time since Shake your Money Maker (1990), the band really came together. I think when it got to a point when we really thought about life and being in the band and making a commitment, we decided the band is just bigger than us as individuals."

Digging deeper, Chris reveals: "We were going to break the band up. Last year we did six weeks on tour in Europe and then three months in the States before we went back to Europe and did H.O.R.D.E. (For) that three months in the States, Rich got his own bus ... Me and Rich -- we've always loved each other, we just didn't like each other for a while.

"It was just sort of like, 'OK, somebody better just inventory all our gear and sell it all, because we're fuckin' outta here.' I think it took that to get to this. You're learning, as the Louvin Brothers said."

A renewed sense of community and family was enhanced by the recording process, which took place with Jack Joseph Pulg, who also co-produced amorica with them, at the Chateau de la Crowe in Atlanta, a rented home-turned-studio, full of nooks and crannies where the array of sounds -- many of them acoustic -- on the disc were harnessed. "It's a totally different vibe doing it in a house, much more conducive to being creative," says guitarist Rich Robinson, who stretches out his vocally to fine effect on Three Snakes and One Charm, singing lead for the first time on parts of "How Much For Your Wings" and harmonizing on choruses to nine of the dozen tunes Chris sings lead on. Along the way, they achieve that special yin/yang harmony only siblings can intuitively reach.

The other Black Crowes also found the heart of Three Snakes and One Charm in their temporary home and in the freewheeling yet fruitful recording process. "We lived and breathed together all day long--the musical options were wide open, almost limitless," relates bassist Johnny Colt of the relaxed and creative recording. "It was a caravan of people; people upstairs watching crazy art films; people cutting tracks and eating food. There were dogs running everywhere. And Jack was pulling his hair out over the whole thing of course!"

The results are undeniable, thanks the The Black Crowes' "positive head space," as drummer Steve Gorman puts it, "a renewal of vows." This emerged in part to the band's triumphant headlining spot on the H.O.R.D.E. tour (which was the most successful H.O.R.D.E. trek in its four-year existence and one that outsold Lollapalooza in many cities). You can hear the resultant freshness in songs like the album's kick-off, "Under A Mountain," a striking tune replete with Rich Robinson's rich, open-tuned chords, and it's clear he's come into his own more than ever before as a songwriter. The track "(Only) Halfway to Everywhere" reflects Chris Robinson's fondness for Sly & The Family Stone-style fare and features vocalist Gary "Mudbine" Cooper and Gary Shider of the P-Funk All Stars (We put the song together," says Chris, "In that sorta Temptations-style, the three different voices, a totally Sly thing"), while other guests on the album include the Dirty Dozen (formerly the Dirty Dozen Brass Band), singer Erica Stewart of Ziggy Marley And The Melody Makers, singer Barbara Mitchell, who guested on the band's second album, The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion, ex-American Music Club's Bruce Kaphan on pedal steel and banjo player Rick Taylor.

In talking about the song "Good Friday," the LP's first radio track, Chris says: "You have those sort of country-ish verses with the big gospel chorus, and then you throw in our friend Rick Taylor playin' banjo in the second verse, so then you have the bluegrass. What a wellspring traditional American music is -- it runs so deep, you can never learn enough about it, and you can never stop incorporating it. I think a lot of our country and folk things that we play live are on this record, and people haven't heard that for a while."

Guitarist Marc Ford, who joined The Black Crowes six days prior to the recording of the band's 1992 Southern Harmony And Musical Companion, finds all options open within the band. "That's why it all melds so well," he explains. "Everyone's coming from a different part of the country, traditionally and musically. You can do anything you want and it always keeps it exciting and fresh." As for his interplay with Rich, it's ever- expanding. "It just keeps flowering. Rich used to insist he was a rhythm player, and I told him to stick his toe as a lead player in the water a little bit, and now we're playing with each other, listening to each other. You can do all that sound-weaving."

The rich layering in the songs on Three Snakes and One Charm is evident in both The Black Crowes' music and Chris' probing lyrics. As a romance falls apart in "Under A Mountain," Robinson decadently merges images of chaos and desperation with humor. When Robinson sings "So I'm under a mountain/Stuck to this mattress/Perfume and valium," the effect is both strangely funny and unsettling as he describes the lives of two people which have come apart despite their need for each other. Elsewhere, in the purposely misspelled "Nebekannezer" (he was the King of Babylon), the specter of heroin sparked the lyrics ("All of his friends complain/ That they got the flu/ They ain't sick in the head/ They look like the living dead"). "It's sort of the two thumbs-up feel good junkie song of the summer ," quips the singer, whose instantly recognizable voice runs to sassiness in tunes like "Blackberry," and segues easily into a moving -- and caustic -- song about a fractured romance, "Good Friday." "One Mirror Too Many," "How Much For Your Wings" and "Evil Eye" are perhaps among the band's most musically adventurous songs to date, with their wild, psychedelicized stylings. "Evil Eye," the closing cut on Three Snakes and One Charm, has especially potent lyrics. And one line in particular could perhaps be interpreted as a bit of The Black Crowes' credo. "This is not to scare you/This is to make sense of our time," sings Chris. While the phrase could apply to the band's philosophy about its own songs and musical raison d'etre, "Evil Eye" was actually penned in part about televangelist types ("Jesus can't save you/Though it's nice to think he'd try," sings Chris). "I'm talking about the manipulative, evil, money-raking Jesus that most of Christian America follows," explains Chris.

The characters who populate the songs on Three Snakes and One Charm know they could use a little redemption, but some of them are in no particular hurry to get there. They prefer to face their demons before they think about losing them, like the woman in "Girl From A Pawn Shop." Later on, a sense of transcendence is achieved on the uplifting "Bring On, Bring On" and a simple but hard-won conclusion is reached in "Better When You're Not Alone." Throughout, Chris is also writing in the first-person more than before, giving this Black Crowes album a more intimate flavor.

1996 is a time that needs to be made sense of, and The Black Crowes have an organic approach to life and music that serves them well, and has inspired legions of fanatical fans. "Get off the World Wide Web and pick up a fuckin' book, would ya?!" suggests Chris, though he's not inherently opposed to technology (the band does have its own website known as "Tallest"), just mental laziness. In The Black Crowes' camp, integration, consistency, integrity and hard work is paramount. And it's something the band has deftly, and not without struggle, captured within themselves and the band. A collective consciousness within the individuals that make up The Black Crowes is key to their appeal and success. "It's embarrassing that people are so selfish," notes Chris. "That's part of the desperation of our generation, but I think everyone is too selfish to see it, which is a weird catch-22! But there are some people who don't have shallow one- dimensional pursuits and who really do believe there are still some magical things out there."

Onstage, The Black Crowes are known to stretch out musically, rearranging songs and changing set lists all the time. When they headlined five sold-out nights at New York's Beacon Theater in 1995, it was a different set every night. Elaborates Chris: "It's like looking at a map when you what to get to a certain place. How many rods can you take to get to that place? When we show up for a gig, it's like we're on a road map just trying to get to the same place. It's worth taking off and exploring other musical avenues just to find that magic place every night."

That willingness to improve and explore is a natural function within the band, as Johnny Colt explains. "I feel different every day, and every show is different. You gotta align with the universe, man. If you want to be creative, you can't try and funnel the shoe. The quality control argument is null and void."

From his perspective behind the keys, Hawrysch offers insight into where his piece of The Black Crowes' puzzle fits. "I was playing with Muddy Waters at 24, and Chris tells me he's learned more from me than any one person. I'm older than the other guys, and I think I've brought something to the band ... and it's just not a case of beer! On the other hand, I've learned from them," affirms the seasoned player.

The Black Crowes have been able to do a great deal with their three previous tours and albums (1990's Shake your Money Maker, 1992's The Southern Harmony and Musical Composition and 1994's amorica combined have sold over 11 million copies worldwide). Following the release of amorica, the sextet were honored with stints playing with the Rolling Stones (eight overseas shows including three at Wembley Stadium in London), Page/Plant and the Grateful Dead. "amorica allowed us to be the band we weren't allowed to be," believes Rich of the way-too-narrow pigeonholing the band sometimes received. "It pushed us past the retro thing, and affirmed us more as players, musicians and songwriters than the perception that the band was only made up of bell- bottom wearers and pot-smokers." There's probably another reason The Black Crowes were honored with these coveted gigs; these band are attracted to The Black Crowes' love for the rock's gritty, dirty, sexy blues roots and an appreciation for eloquence and decadence in art, music, and literature.

While The Black Crowes never preach, they most definitely and often defiantly stand behind what they believe in, often times eschewing any benefits they might reap. As the New York Post noted: "They tour without corporate sponsors, play fan-friendly theaters rather than arenas and make music to please themselves rather than the critics." And on their 1995 "amorica or Bust Tour" the band invited fans to tape-record The Black Crowes' live shows. The Black Crowes believe their fans should be able to take a piece of the group home as a souvenir.

And touring for Three Snakes and One Charm is sure to hold its own surprises. With four powerful, diverse album's worth of material to draw on, The Black Crowes circa 1996 and beyond have nothing to prove and everything to give. As Chris aptly notes, "We're really only one of the bands of this decade that's changed every couple of years musically. We make it hard for some people in the media!" the frontman says with a laugh, as he quickly finds the perfect analogy to further his point: "It sort of makes your teacher mad that maybe you understood something about that book that she didn't because she's just been sitting there teaching the same thing for 16 years ... and the teacher's edition only goes far!" Once again, leave it to The Black Crowes to open your mind and ears to something you thought you already understood.