The Black Crowes are back with their new album, ‘Happiness Bastards’

When I last caught up with Chris and Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes, it was in person, as they prepared to celebrate 30 years of Shake Your Money Maker. The brothers had reconciled, reunited and were excited for the future. What none of us knew was that in one week, everything would come grinding to a halt because of the pandemic.

So with plans dashed and some time to reflect, the Brothers Robinson started writing some new songs. Songs that would end up becoming The Black Crowes’ new album, Happiness Bastards. The record wouldn’t feel out of place next to some of their early iconic recordings like Shake Your Money Maker and The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion.The always entertaining and delightfully freewheeling Chris Robinson joins me to talk about making the record, beat poetry and why he’s a sucker for songs about losers.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kim Junod. The web story was created by Brian Divver. Our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.