With their debut "Shake Your Money Maker", The Black Crowes had a furious start into the new decade in 1990. Somewhat belatedly, a limited deluxe edition including single B-sides and previously unreleased studio and live recordings is now being released to mark the 30th anniversary.
The immense success of "Shake Your Money Maker" was by no means to be expected at the time, as the brothers Chris and Rich Robinson relied on the pure power of rock'n'roll, although the musical zeitgeist between fading 80s pop and the already emerging grunge was quite different. In an interview with eclipsed, Chris Robinson recalls the production of this classic of riff-oriented boogie rock, which has lost none of its power and urgency to this day
eclipsed: "Shake Your Money Maker" has lost none of its vibrancy even after 30 years.
Rich and Chris Robinson have been sailing under the same flag again since the end of 2019: The Black Crowes. What was unimaginable just a year ago is now back to everyday life. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of their debut album "Shake Your Money Maker", the brothers have put aside their years of animosity and opened a new chapter in the band's history. In the interview, which was written before the Corona crisis, Rich sounds as euphoric as one has seldom heard the band's guitarist and main songwriter in recent years
Huge stadiums, 30 million albums sold, desert drug excesses, but also two divorces and children for whom he has no custody: Chris Robinson experienced all the ups and downs of the Showbiz brand - and came to a momentous conclusion: He simply has no desire anymore for all the hustle and bustle that goes along with a successful rock band like the Black Crowes. That's why he now lives in Marin County, in the mountainous north of San Francisco, in very modest, rural conditions.
"I've got a cabin, a studio, a woman and a lot of whales swimming outside the bay. Plus a lot of hippies and deadheads in the neighborhood. It's a freaky community." Their influence is also reflected in his music. Because Robinson, who lives off the royalties of the Crowes years, no longer makes a conventional, mass-produced skirt.
Since 2015, The Black Crowes, the band that guitarist Rich Robinson founded in the mid-1980s as a singer with his brother Chris, two and a half years his senior, and which became one of the most important rock acts in the USA in the 1990s, have been history. While his brother with the band Brotherhood (new album: "Barefoot In The Head"; see reviews in this issue) became a big hit at some Jamrock festivals, especially in the States, Rich got into a bad way with his solo band and solo albums (the last one was "Flux", 2016). But now the 48-year-old is getting reinforcements from the Black Crowes past and is seriously taking off with The Magpie Salute.
eclipsed: In the big-band-like line-up of Magpie Salute two names stand out besides some old acquaintances from various solo bands and projects. Bassist Sven Pipien and guitarist Marc Ford. You played both of them in the Black Crowes. How conscious did you make the decision to want her back?
