Guitarist Rich Robinson estimates he has played thousands of gigs during his career, but the vast majority have included his brother, Chris Robinson, and their band the Black Crowes.
The Crowes are on what may or may not be a permanent hiatus, however, and as Rich Robinson prepares to hit the road for the first time with his new band, Hookah Brown, he said a sans-Crowes tour will take a little getting used to.
“It’s really weird,” Robinson said. “I’ve played more than 2,000 shows with my brother and the rest of the Crowes, and it’s strange not having them up there.”
Not that he minds sharing the stage with the other members of Hookah Brown: John Hogg on vocals, Fionn O’Lochlainn on bass and Bill Dobrow on drums.
After the Crowes went inactive, Robinson spent time producing and writing scores for a film, “Highway,” and a play, “The Mayor’s Limo.” But he got restless.
“I’m a guitar player in a band, and I love doing all these things, and I’ll always do these things, but it’s like, well, I’m a guitar player in a band, and I don’t have a band,” Robinson said.
So he jammed with different musicians in New York before finding the eventual members of Hookah Brown. Robinson said the group simply clicked when they started playing together last summer.
“It was just one of those things where we really meshed, all four of us,” he said.
The band’s sound is built around Robinson’s effortless guitar riffs, and the songs are more stripped down and show less of a blues tint than those of the Black Crowes.
“It’s in that vein, but it’s a four-piece instead of a six-piece,” Robinson said. “Some people say it sounds like the Crowes; other people don’t.”
Hookah Brown is touring without benefit of a record or, at this point, a record deal, but Robinson said they have been recording at his studio in New York.
“I guess it just depends on what kind of deal we get and who and when and why,” he said.
