Another flood alarm at THE MAGPIE SALUTE - but mastermind Rich Robinson and his five comrades-in-arms continue to wade through all the unrest these days on their second studio album "High Water II". He is very proud of the new album, as well as the predecessor "High Water I", Rich Robinson emphasizes quite rightly. Despite all the euphoria, the ex-Black Crowes guitarist describes himself as a "sentimental person". The separation of his former band in January 2015 and the related quarrel with his older brother Chris still plagues him. In an interview he explains his ambivalent relationship to friendship and why lyrics are so important to him.
eclipsed: Last year you said in an interview that "High Water II" would probably be more about melancholy than its predecessor. Did your expectation come true?
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?
