Chris and Rich Robinson are gearing up for the upcoming Black Crowes reunion tour by playing a series of under-the-radar acoustic shows under the moniker Birds of a Feather.
They began the tour on Wednesday night at the London club Omera with a set that included Black Crowes classics like “Thorn in My Pride,” “She Talks to Angels” and “Remedy,” along with a cover of Little Feat’s “Willin’” and Manassas’ “So Many Times.’
The Robinson brothers head over to the Netherlands on Saturday evening before traveling to America on February 19th to kick off a nine-city run at Boston’s Brighton Music Hall. These are the first shows that Chris and Rich have played together since November, when the Black Crowes promoted their upcoming reunion tour with club gigs in New York and Los Angeles.
Prior to November, the Black Crowes hadn’t played together since their breakup in 2014. It was a particularly bitter split, as each brother pledged to never work with the other again. They spent the interim touring with competing groups that played the music of the Black Crowes as they trashed each other in the press.
“I’ve apologized to Rich,” Chris told Rolling Stone shortly before the reunion was announced. “I was angry, and I’m a sensitive person as well and the way that the band wrapped up and all this stuff about money and everything; all that stuff is all, for the most part, true. That was my way of being cruel to him.”
This new iteration of the Black Crowes doesn’t have a single member that played with the group at any point in the past. “That was the first thing Rich and I agreed on,” Chris said. “We don’t want anyone from the solo groups. We don’t want anyone from the past.”
The Black Crowes formally launch their tour June 17th in Austin Texas, but they are playing the New Orleans Jazz 7 Heritage Festival on April 30th.
