Rich Robinson - Black Crowes Reunited

Black Crowes Reunited

In January 2005, Chris and Rich Robinson played an acoustic show together in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the first time since the Black Crowes went on hiatus in 2002 that the two brothers had played together on the same stage. This and the reactivation of the band's website fueled rumors that the Black Crowes were re-uniting.

In March 2005, the Black Crowes officially went back on tour in Pittson, Pennsylvania. The tour included seven nights at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York and when the band came for a four night run at the Tabernacle in their home town of Atlanta, Georgia, the bands original drummer, Steve Gorman, returned to the band. The tour continued with many dates in the US and a couple in Canada.

In June, the band began opening for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and also played several music festivals including the Bonnaroo Music Festival. While still on tour with Tom Petty they started playing clubs on their own, and treating their audiences to two-set shows that were close to three hours long. In August they did a five night run at The Fillmore in San Francisco, which was filmed for the 2006 live CD/DVD entitled Freak 'n' Roll Into The Fog. The band also did two shows in Japan. The Crowes spent that northern fall doing two set-shows around the US including four nights at the Henry Fonda Music Box Theater in Los Angeles.

In November and December Chris took time off from the Crowes to tour with Phil Lesh and Friends on their Shadow of the Moon Winter Tour. He joined back up with the Crowes to finish out 2005 with three shows including a New Year's Eve show at Madison Square Garden in New York.

After a handful of shows in the States in March, the Black Crowes headed overseas to do three shows at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London, England, and three shows at the Paridiso in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Chris and Rich spent the month of April doing 13 acoustic shows. The tour was titled Brothers of a Feather and a CD and DVD from one of their three nights at the Roxy in Los Angeles during this tour was released in 2007. The Brothers played new material during their tour for the first time since the Black Crowes had reunited as well as playing each other's solo material together for the first time.

From here the brothers joined back up with the Crowes and headed to Canada for the month of May with openers Matt Mays and El Torpedo. They headed back to the States for a handful of two-set shows before heading out on a summer shed tour starting in June with the openers Robert Randolph and the Family Band and the Drive-By Truckers. They played mostly one-set shows although they did sneak in a few two-set club dates during the summer. The band continued to play a mix of songs from all of their albums, cover songs and a few new songs. This tour ended at Red Rocks in Morrison, Colorado, on August 12 and then an acoustic brothers' show in Boulder, CO, on August 13. Tickets to the show were given only to winners of a contest put on the band's message board.

Before the band returned to the road in the beginning of September, guitarist Marc Ford quit, and keyboardist Eddie Harsch was fired. They were replaced by Paul Stacey and Rob Clores, respectively. This tour ended November 8 at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey.

During the winter and early spring of 2007 Rich pulled together some friends to do two Circle Sound shows in New York. Both he and Chris did a handful of solo shows. In June the Black Crowes headed back on tour doing one-set shows, sometimes with alternating openers including the Buffalo Killers and the North Mississippi Allstars. In July Chris and Rich appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and played an acoustic version of the song Wiser Time.

At their August 3 show at the Musikfest in Bethelem, Pennsylvania, the band made another member change when keyboardist Rob Clores left the band and was replaced by Adam MacDougall. This tour ended in early November with two shows at the United Palace Theater in New York and two shows at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.