The Black Crowes Live On NPR

One of the most welcome bits of music news this year, before it all came down, was the reunion of the Robinson brothers, Chris and Rich, better known as the main men behind The Black Crowes. For those of you just that little bit too young to remember, The Crowes emerged in the early Nineties as some sort of bastard children of The Stones, The Faces and The Allman Brothers. Manna from heaven, then, for rockers who had had quite enough of the ridiculous likes of, say,  Poison - Jaysus, they were awful - on one hand, and the po-faced we-mean-it-man-isms of someone like Nirvana on the the other. Here was a band who rocked and rolled because that's what a rock and roll band was supposed to do. I could be here until next week telling you about their first Irish gig in the National Stadium where jewellery had to be removed lest it be forever lost in the serious getting down. They made some great records too - go and check out 1992's The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion and fall in love with them all over again.

Anyway, The Crowes are due here in October, and my apartment is full of penny candles, lit as offerings to anyone who might be listening,  pleading and begging for the show to go ahead, given all that's afoot. In the meantime, Chris and Rich have given us this Tiny Desk Concert with the help of the good people at NPR. The reunion is to celebrate their arse-kickingly great debut album, Shake Your Money Maker - go on, just try and come up with a more rock n' roll title than that - and we accordingly get two numbers from it, but we also get the gorgeous 'Wiser Time' which originally came out on their third album, Amorica, the one with the "risqué" cover art. Yes, I'm a bit of a fan. Enjoy.