Chris Robinson Brotherhood :: Anyway You Love, We Know How You Feel

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A fitting title for the recently released long player from The Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Anyway You Love, We Know How You Feel features original members Chris Robinson, Neal Casal and Adam McDougall along with the recent addition of drummer Tony Leone. Since their humble beginnings in 2011 The CRB, as they are fondly referred to, have recorded 4 studio albums and a soon to be released 5 song EP, If You Lived Here You Would Be Home By Now. All this while maintaining a tour schedule that fills the majority of the calendar year, something parallel to Northern California touring giants the Grateful Dead.

A worthy comparison considering the melting pot of influences and inspirations both bands have successfully conjured during each of their tenures. The sum of these parts include elements of 60s and 70s psych, touches of prog, funk, soul, country, doo-wop, gospel, and beyond. All these ingredients trailblazing a wonderfully refreshing slice of “Rock N Roll’ music. Not the “Rock’” music that has been diluted to a commodity or pushed down a hole of nostalgia. This is never more evident than on “Forever As The Moon”, a rollicking number that hearkens to Goats Head Soup era Stones, with Robinson singing “Let’s open the door to tomorrow’s hidden charms and gaze in the wonder.”

Anyway You Love analyzes aspects of the human condition, delving into fear and anxiety, while ultimately finding hope and faith. The lead track “Narcissus Soaking Wet” works a Sly and The Family Stone groove as it lyrically challenges the false idolatry of rock n roll and how it’s led to its own demise. Later we are brought back to the core nature of the band, a place where the harmonious relationship to music is its basic tenet. It sits front in center. “Oak Apple Day” reflects on life within the CRB, as the chorus begins “Arrive and enter, awake and believe.”

While speaking with Robinson over the phone in September, he explained the band’s basic tour routines – essentially how music is their daily muse. In one conversation he tells of how the band had just spent the early afternoon record shopping, something they collectively and regularly do. With a turntable on their tour bus they are constantly turning one another on to new music and being inspired by one anothers discoveries. Stretching from Thin Lizzy to Gong to Earl Scruggs they maintain a deep and open palette between each other.

Their approach to songwriting on the new record is similar – an exchange of ideas, a collaborative voice. A small spark of a riff or lyric is opened up into a song. The closing lines of the chorus ring “Round here we got nothing but time, So won’t you dream with me.” That lyric lending itself to another song on the record titled “Leave My Guitar Alone,” – a song that Robinson had been sitting on for over a decade. It wasn’t until he shared it with the group that it became fully realized. It’s in this communal approach the connection is felt. Instead of feeling rehearsed the songs feel free and loose. A sense of openness and spontaneity.

As a whole, Anyway You Love, We Know How You Feel reflects a deep love for music. It doesn’t confine us to a linear sense of genre, but it also holds firmly in its roots of what some might deem “Cosmic American Music.” Something Chris Robinson has become a purveyor of. Turning us on to the connection that music makes, and the songs that take us on the journey to find out. words / sam james velde

Chris Robinson :: A Medley (A Mixtape For Aquarium Drunkard)

There has been a fever on the space ship.Time to become cocoons & give oneself to the turquoise vapors of the lower decks. Inner space field recordings. Mapping the never before, surveying the always been. The celestial sound of the spheres as we glide across an inky Black Sea of bliss! Blessed are the trip takers. Rama Lama ding dong. – Chris Robinson

Download: Chris Robinson :: A Medley (zipped folder, external link)

Jan Hammer Group – Don’t You Know
Steve Hillage – Talking To the Sun
Amon Düül ll – A Morning Excuse
Todd Rundgren – The Spark of Life
Gong – A Sprinkling of Clouds
Daevid Allen – Crocodile Nonsense Poem
Parliament – (You’re a Fish and I’m A) Water Sign
Leon Russell – Acid Annapolis
Tim Blake – Last Ride of the Boogie child
Mort Garson – Leave the Driving To Us
Far East Band – Nagare
Jerry Garica & Howard Wales – One A.M. Approach

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