The Black Crowes:

Lions From The Inside Out

originally published October 17, 2001

blackcrowes.jpg Photo by Zoren Gold

The Black Crowes are getting used to making fresh starts. The Atlanta band watched sales of its recent albums slip during the late '90s, but hoped to regain some lost momentum when it signed with Columbia Records in 1998 after a long stint on American Recordings. In By Your Side, the Black Crowes gave Columbia one of the strongest albums of their career, but that didn't translate with record buyers. By Your Side ended up being perhaps the most overlooked record of the group's decade-long career.

Guitarist Rich Robinson says he knew the band's relationship with Columbia was doomed before By Your Side was even released. By that time, he had been tipped off by some staffers at Columbia that the label's president had decided the record wasn't commercial enough and it wouldn't be a priority for the label.

"They lost interest before the record came out," Robinson says. "We know the date when they lost interest. And so it's depressing. You spend all this time making these records that you really believe in. I've never been of a mind to blame a label if a record doesn't do well. People buy it or they don't. But I can point blank point a finger at [Columbia] and say you know what, I think that had a lot to do with it."

Undeterred, the Black Crowes toured heavily behind By Your Side. Then came an unexpected collaboration, when former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page invited the Crowes to be his backing band at a charity show in London. That show went so well Page and the Black Crowes decided to play a series of shows in 1999 in New York and Los Angeles. A double-live album - culled from the Los Angeles shows - was released in 2000, and Page and the Crowes decided to take their show - comprised of Led Zeppelin songs and a few Black Crowes tunes - on the road that summer. Unfortunately, the tour had to be cut short when Page reportedly injured his back.

With the shows canceled, the Black Crowes turned their attention to their new album, Lions, and secured a new record deal with V2 Records. Robinson believed the album had a fighting chance to restore some of the luster to his group's career. Part of his optimism stemmed from the band's relationship with V2 Records - the label millionaire Richard Branson founded after he sold Virgin Records - a company he had built into a major force in the record industry.

"One of the reasons we chose V2 is because [Branson] is the sole owner, Robinson says. "It's a huge independent company. They really don't belong to BMG and Sony. When you think about it, there are three [major] labels now. And so that was what was so appealing about it. Plus, their attitude. I mean we walked in and just everything they said - 'You guys go make the record you want to make and give it to us and we'll sell it. That's what our job is.'"

Robinson was also hopeful because he felt he and his bandmates - lead singer (and older brother) Chris Robinson, guitarist Audley Freed, keyboardist Eddie Harsch, and drummer Steve Gorman - made one of the best and most diverse albums of the group's career. A new bassist, Andy Hess, joined the group after Lions was recorded.

When the band debuted in 1990 with Shake Your Money Maker - an album that sold seven million copies behind hits like "Twice As Hard" and "Jealous Again" - the Black Crowes were categorized by many critics as a band whose Rolling Stones and Faces influences bordered on imitation. Over the course of the next three albums - The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion, Amorica and Three Snakes And A Charm - the group refined and expanded its sound. The boogying rock of Shake Your Money Maker still figured in the mix, but a jammier, more textured psychedelic sound had also emerged, to the point that the Black Crowes were even featured on the jam-happy Further Festival, a tour organized by the surviving members of the Grateful Dead. Along the way, the Crowes' sound grew less derivative and more distinctive.

By Your Side, however, represented a move back to the stripped-down, hard-rocking sound of Shake Your Money Maker. Catchy, fast paced songs like "Go Faster, "Kickin' My Heart Around" and "Horse Head" were especially meaty tracks. Lions, though, returns to a more diverse sound.

"I think that Lions is a culmination of everything," Robinson says. "Our whole career we've been making records and trying to find our way... I think By Your Side was the record we needed to make at that time. And I think we've taken By Your Side to the next step with this record... I think the reason the record is the way it is is because we didn't have to fight to be who we are."

The new album has songs that are concise and rock hard, such as "Midnight From The Inside Out" and the first single, "Lickin,'" which is defined by an effects-laden staccato guitar riff. But Lions branches out with songs like "No Use Lying," which has a psychedelic feel, the funky "Ozone Mama" and "Soul Singin'," which brings some gospel inflections to the band's rootsy rock sound.

Where By Your Side was a stripped down, immediate sounding album, Lions is more textured and complex, with a more varied range of tones and sonic flourishes adding to the band's sound. Lions may not be as immediate as By Your Side or Shake Your Money Maker, but repeated listenings bring out the depth and strength of the new songs.

"I think Chris and I really sat down and worked out the arrangements," Robinson explains. "There's a spontaneous factor to it, the whole record, and there's a live feel, but there is more production [from producer Don Was] to it as well."

Robinson says the band also feels energized because life in the group has stabilized. Early in the band's career, Rich and Chris Robinson were notorious for their arguments and the creative tension that existed between the two. The group also went through a major personnel shakeup in 1997 when bassist Johnny Colt quit the band and guitarist Marc Ford was fired. Robinson has said Ford had a substance abuse problem that had affected his playing.

"I think we're more at peace because I think Chris and I are getting along better," he says. "I think everyone... you know, it gets really confusing when you start out as big as we did. And then you put out the second record and everyone looks at it like it's a failure... not us, but like the people around you. The music industry has changed so drastically over the last 10 years - plus us growing up, getting married and having kids, trying to figure out everything while being in this band and growing up - I think it's a little confusing. At the end of the day, that is really the main reason why things are the way we are. I think we've gotten through a lot of that, and I think we're more comfortable with our place in life. I think we're comfortable with the fact that we're an island unto ourselves. If you look at us in the music industry, that's who we are."