Rich Robinson’s Defunct Hookah Brown: Tone!

Rich at a Hookah Brown gig, in '04 maybe? (audioe.com photo)

Oh man. When a WoodyTone reader hipped me to Hookah Brown (thanks again Greg!), I was elated and bummed at the same time. Elated because it’s just so good, and is what I wish the Black Crowes would sound like: A little heavier, more space in the tunes, different singing. But the band was already defunct, finito, hasta la vista. Bummer.

Still, the tunes are great. Definitely worth tipping you off if you’re unaware of this fantastic band – which, incidentally, Rich Robinson said in this interview “didn’t pan out because a lot of band bullsh*t politics.” Rich is of course the guitar-playing brother of the Black Crowes Robinsons, and is the guy who put Hookah Brown together – and then dissolved it!

Not much on the band, which appears to have evaporated this year, but here’s one music-related Rich quote on the band from a different interview:

> On the four-piece: “I think the sort of raw factor of it stems from us being a four piece. And these are riffs, you know – I’ve always written big rock riffs, but when it’s accompanied by a second guitar, and a keyboard, background vocals and vocals [as in the Crowes], there’s just a lot more added to it. Whereas with a four piece…that’s it.”

Gear

Rich with his Joyce rig.

There are zero YouTube vids for this band, but you can listen to several studio and live tunes at the band’s MySpace page. Since Rich has a ton of cool gear, it’s tough to tell what he played on the studio tracks. But live with Hookah Brown, it looks like a few choice guitars plus his trusty Harry Joyce amps. They look like Hiwatts and Harry built the original Hiwatts for Dave Reeves, so…I assume they sound like Hiwatts but better,

Though I’m no Rich expert, it seems like the Joyces are his live amps of choice since he’s been using them for a while (see the vid below).

Roch's Hookah live guitars.

Notable

> Rich also said a few things about the music biz in the above-linked Glide mag interview. Here’s one quote I thought was funny – don’t read it if you were a Badger! “…it’s some a**hole who got a business degree from f*ckin’ the University of Wisconsin or whatever, and instead of going to work for IBM he goes and works for Sony Music, and he doesn’t know sh*t about sh*t. And he’s telling artists how to write songs, and it’s disgusting.”

Jimmy Page with the Black Crowes on Leno, Wanton Song, 1999 (I think)
> This is guitarist and tone nirvana: Page, Robinson and Audley Freed! Oops: Including this because Rich is also using his Harry Joyce rig here. Page has his Orange and JP-100. Can’t see what Audley is using….

Category: Harry Joyce amps, Rich Robinson