Chris Robinson Brotherhood: Big Moon Ritual (Warners)

 |   |  <1 min read

Chris Robinson Brotherhood: 100 Days of Rain
Chris Robinson Brotherhood: Big Moon Ritual (Warners)

Robinson is frontman for the Black Crowes, the band which married the Allman Brothers' soulful Southern rock with a stoner take on the shambling Faces but more recently slid into post-Band country-rock with their excellent Before the Frost recorded live in the late Levon Helm's studio.

Robinson's solo albums have been of no fixed focus but drew on Americana, rock and country and songs often tripped-out at length. Which means this -- with yet another band – wouldn't surprise longtime followers: nothing is shorter than seven minutes and the opener Tulsa Yesterday clocks in at a yawning 12.

This is mostly languid, prog-country rock – the cover is like a Yes album – but for every meandering piece there's another to catch your breath, notably the exceptional, nine minute-plus Star or Stone which has the weariness of Dylan's I Shall be Released or the Stones' Wild Horses with cryptic lyrics about prophecy and dying, or the equally slow, possibly autobiographical 100 Days of Rain.

With guitarist Neal Casal (Ryan Adams' Cardinals) and electric keyboard player Adam MacDougall providing drifting accompaniment, Robinson occasionally delivers something special.

But mostly this is for an audience which is horizontal.

Or soon will be.

Like the sound of this? Then check out this.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Angel Olsen: Burn Your Fire For No Witness (Jagjaguwar)

Angel Olsen: Burn Your Fire For No Witness (Jagjaguwar)

Perhaps like most Elsewhere readers, I'd never heard of this quite remarkable woman previously, but a bit of research shows she was born in Missouri, is now based in Chicago and had a previous... > Read more

Chris Isaak: Always Got Tonight (Reprise)

Chris Isaak: Always Got Tonight (Reprise)

The composed and moody Isaak isn't a guy you'd credit with a sense of humour but his TV show, sort of sitcom-cum-real life, was so self-deprecating he's going to get a fairer hearing round my... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs (2000)

Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs (2000)

Many years ago, because it was silly, I started picking up the odd tribute album. And tribute albums are odd indeed. Without much difficulty -- because tribute albums almost invariably end up... > Read more

THE BARGAIN BUY: The Beach Boys; Surfin' Safari/Surfin' USA

THE BARGAIN BUY: The Beach Boys; Surfin' Safari/Surfin' USA

While sensible folk agree that Brian Wilson was a song craftsman and produced work of genius in the mid Sixties -- the period which is one of the focal points of the current film Love and Mercy --... > Read more