Black Crowes' Steve Gorman reflects on "Croweology," saying goodbye

 

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"We wanted to do something with the 20th-year anniversary," Gorman said. "It would almost be in our character not even to notice. We always just think of what to do next. Instead, we thought, 'Wow, that's worth taking a minute and thinking about.'"

In 2008, The Black Crowes played acoustic shows at the Town Hall in New York. Gorman said his band always "wanted to use those as a template for something," but they didn't know for what. They decided to do an acoustic album.

"By an acoustic record, we don't mean it's slow and plodding," Gorman said. "There's some rocking stuff on this record."

For the track listing, the Robinson brothers and Gorman each made a list of 20 or 25 songs that they wanted to see on the album. When they sat down to compare notes, 12 or 13 were common tracks.

"We were halfway there," Gorman said. "Then, as soon as you look at someone else's list, you're like, 'Oh of course. I forgot that one.' I'd say maybe 75 percent of the record was agreed upon instantly upon getting the three lists together. The rest, there was trial and error for sure. It's not so much that we couldn't do the song acoustically. But you're looking for some sort of spark or inspiration that makes it different enough to do. We work pretty quickly. We're not the kind of band that holds on to an idea for days trying to make it work. If it doesn't take off pretty quick, we move on."

At each stop on the upcoming tour, The Black Crowes -- who will be inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame on Sept. 11 -- will perform one acoustic set and one electric set unless otherwise noted for logistical reasons. (See itinerary at right.)

"We'll play all the same tunes," Gorman said. "We'll just do them in different ways. For the 'Croweology' record, there's 20 songs. Those 20 songs, most of those will be performed each night -- sometimes acoustically, sometimes electrically. We're not going to stick with one format for each song throughout the whole tour. We'll switch it up. We don't repeat sets night in and night out. This'll definitely keep it fresh. The acoustic set will be pretty different every night.

"That's the concept we look forward to. It's amazing, too. When we were in the studio, we played them all a million times. But, to get headphones on and really get some sound that we liked and start playing them in that setting, they felt really fresh again. I kept saying, 'Man, we got some decent songs. We're OK here. We've got some good stuff.' It's funny to make a record of songs that you know your audience already knows. We know they already like the songs, so what are we going to do with them? It's a very different approach than going in and whipping up all new tunes. We don't like to repeat ourselves, so we've certainly never done anything like this."

During the imminent post-tour downtime, Gorman has plenty to keep himself busy.

"I've got a lot of little projects," he said. "I live in Nashville and I do a lot of session work here. I have some other, I don't know if I'd call them full-fledged bands, but projects that we put together when everybody involved is available. I do a lot of things with other people and other bands, so it's a matter of everyone's schedules lining up. I'll certainly stay busy. There's a lot of musical things that I do in town. I had a sports radio show here in town. Now I'm doing it in podcast form. That's something I do for fun. On top of all of that, I'm going to have some fun with my family. I have two kids. My wife and I are looking very forward to me being around for a considerable length of time."