Raven’s Reels Vol 1
April 21, 2018
High Is Not the Top
Roll Old Jeremiah
Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line
Star or Stone
Tulsa Yesterday
California Hymn
Try Rock & Roll
Sail On, Sailor
Good to Know
She Shares My Blanket
Behold the Seer
Hark, The Herald Hermit Speaks
If You Had a Heart to Break
New Cannonball Rag
Beggar’s Moon
Bye and Bye
The CRB will be celebrating the release of a very special live release for Record Store Day called Raven’s Reels, Vol. 1, a four-LP set documenting the band’s show at the Bijou Theater in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sept. 24, 2017.
For longtime fans of the CRB, this release may feel somewhat similar to the band’s Betty’s Blends series, the living and ever-changing organism of records recorded and curated by the Grateful Dead’s Betty Cantor-Jackson, but Robinson wants to assure the world that this latest release will be its own thing.
“When Betty and I sort of cooked up the Betty’s Blends thing, we used Record Store Day as a vehicle to build it up,” Robinson tells UCR. “The popularity of Betty’s Blends — if you call it that — has led to it having its own life.”
In the midst of promoting the CRB’s latest album, Barefoot in the Head, Robinson was asked by a fan if he has “something else” coming, and it got him thinking about collaborating with his in-house engineer, Chris “The Raven” Albers, on a new project.
“He’s been with us since our first show in Los Angeles, which was seven years ago,” Robinson explains about Albers. “He started as our merch guy and then he moved to recording, and he even did some stuff with the Black Crowes. So, yeah, we’re really proud of his recordings as well. He has a different ‘thing’ than Betty, so to have the opportunity to do Raven’s Reels is awesome. What we do with Betty’s Blends, it has its own thing, it’s almost like a regular release as opposed to something that’s special or limited. What Chris is doing is something different, and the whole look is different, from the artwork to the vibes.”
Robinson is excited to add this new release to the CRB’s growing catalog, and he seems confident that fans will respond with the same enthusiasm that they do with Betty’s work.
“Our world is alive on the stage,” he says, with an obvious sense of pride in his voice. “It’s alive with the music, with the scene and with the people who come to see us. That’s why we play different sets and tell different stories every night, so I think it’s super exciting to have Raven’s Reels out in the world, out in the record stores. Raven is out there, he’s a working man … this is the working man’s volume, you know? There’s no one who has listened to more CRB music than the Raven.”
And if fans are curious, yes, there are still more blends from Betty on the way.