Rich Robinson brings his band to Wolf Den

August 05, 2016 12:00 am • Last Updated: August 05, 2016 2:39 pm

By Rick Koster
Day Arts/Features writer

With 'Flux,' Rich Robinson nurtures a passion for pure music

Years and many hiatuses/breakups ago, the Black Crowes were playing the Mohegan Sun. Though they were firing on all cylinders and the crowd was damned happy, one observant fan, watching a chilly (lack of) interaction between the band's leaders, brothers Rich (guitar) and Chris (vocals) Robinson, turned to a reporter and said, "Y'know, I don't think they like each other."

Well, sibling feuds in the rock biz are certainly not unusual, and if indeed the Robinsons don't get along — Rich issued a statement in 2015 that the band was breaking up because of his brother's financial demands — there are fans out there more than happy to see Rich go it alone. Always the more introspective and less flamboyant of the brothers, Rich is a terrific and distinct player whose songwriting, with the Crowes or solo albums such as "Llama Blues," "Through a Crooked Sun" and "Paper," is consistently intelligent, catchy American rock.

This is particularly obvious on his new "Flux" album, a wonderfully organic and flowing CD of thoughtful but groove-happy roots music. Without getting too psychoanalytic about the recording, one might regard "Flux" as an exercise in creative catharsis — or maybe Rich Robinson simply had a blast recording a bunch of new songs with like-minded musical pals. Those would include drummer Joe Magistro and keyboardist Matt Slocum, both veterans of previous Robinson solo tours and albums.

"That's exactly what happened," Robinson says of the "Flux" sessions. Speaking in a phone interview before his band plays a free show Sunday in the Mohegan Sun Wolf Den, he explains, "That's how you'd always like to work, and sometimes it happens. With 'Flux,' there was no agenda other than to make a record I like with people I like. I've been playing with Joe since 2003 and Matt joined us in 2014. I love playing with them, and to be in the studio together is my perfect headspace."

"Flux" is a remarkably consistent, well-played album, with "Astral," "Shipwreck" "Which Way Your Wind Blows," "Sleepwalker" and "For to Give" particularly resonant selections. A lot of the material was recorded live in the studio. Too, the precise order of tunes on the album makes it a delicious and old-school listening experience — which is to say, it's a work best appreciated as a complete, start-to-finish statement. And that was intentional.

"Sequencing a record is difficult, but it's also fun," Robinson says. "Yes, I do like to look at a record as a whole piece. Each song takes you to a place, and the next takes you somewhere else, and then the entire experience is a journey. It's all based on feel to me — where is this album ultimately going to take me? A lot goes into that. It can be the speed of a song or the lyrical images."

If utilizing the recording studio as a celebration seems out of touch with the modern music business — where a small group of name producers write formulaic, computer-generated pop songs for carefully selected and photogenic artists, all to be downloaded for fast-food style consumption — Robinson has given a lot of thought to the situation.

"The business is all by design now, and it's a complex problem to me," says Robinson, an extremely voracious reader who once discussed at length with this reporter a Noam Chomsky book. "As technology has grown in society, we as consumers create the world we want rather than experiencing the world as reality. We only want (stuff) we agree with, we don't want the unfamiliar or uncomfortable or opinions we disagree with.

"Musically, people hit the cell phone and download a song for 28 cents ... Massive corporations are built on the backs of artists they have nothing but contempt for. There's nothing concrete about the experience of listening to music today. There's no context of reality about musicians in a studio playing actual instruments — a hugely collaborative effort that most people completely ignore. If someone's a crappy drummer or can't sing, well, the computer fixes it. By the end of a recording session, there's no humanity at all. The personality has all been sucked out of it. Listen to a streaming service like Spotify. Anybody can put music up there. Well, you know what? Maybe not everybody SHOULD put music up there. "

Throughout, Robinson speaks in a relaxed, well-modulated conversational style that contains a hint of world-weary frustration. He continues, "We have no respect for music in our society. It's an industry for shameless self-promoters. A photo of someone with a guitar can go viral because you look cool, whether you can play or not. A lot of kids are really great at being in videos. Those are our stars."

Which brings the conversation back to Robinson, his band, "Flux" and the simple joy of being a musician. He even recently toured with Bad Company when original guitarist Mick Ralphs was unable to take part.

"I know (vocalist) Paul Rodgers and (drummer) Simon Phillips, and they're such sweet guys. Paul called and asked if I could fill in, and I was happy to," he says. "It was a fun opportunity to play with a definitive classic rock band and, more importantly, to show Paul and Simon respect and help them out."

Spoken like an unrepentantly pure artist.

Now, Robinson's immediate future will focus on "Flux" and the privilege of touring with his band.

"You know, I never forget that music IS amazing. No other species creates music the way we do. It lives and breathes. And when it does, there's nothing better than that."