Biography

RELEASES TO RADIO SEPTEMBER 7
Mark Robinson’s New Single "Gone South" Has A & B "Sides: Same Song, Two Versions

Nashville Guitarist-Songwriter Recorded Both Electric Rock and Acoustic Roots Versions — Then Called on Music City’s Deep Talent Bench to Pull Off This “Rock & Roots” Double Header

"On his new [electric rock] single, Mark Robinson channels Johnny Winters' ferocious electric rock, wrapping his gruff vocals around his own charging riffs." --Henry Carrigan, NO DEPRESSION

NASHVILLE — Guitar slinger-songwriter Mark Robinson, whose first two albums were named to several “Best Of” blues and blues-rock lists, will release a new digital single, "Gone South", on September 11 — and it’s going to surprise a lot of folks who thought they had him pegged solidly in the blues genre.

But Gone South is not blues, not blues-rock. It’s hard electric rock, the kind of rock that would fit on a DJ’s playlist alongside Mountain, The James Gang, or My Morning Jacket. And it’s also acoustic roots, in the vein of Sam Lewis, The California Honeydrops, or The SteelDrivers.

“Gone South” is both electric rock and acoustic roots because Robinson recorded two versions of the song, and he’s releasing them simultaneously. In the spirit of classic vinyl 45s, the digital single Gone South has two “sides”: one electric rock, one acoustic roots. Then listeners can decide for themselves which is A and which is B (a very unscientific poll of Robinson’s fans resulted in a virtual dead heat).

The idea to record it two ways came to Robinson while he was writing the song—hearing it in his head not only as a hard electric rocker but also as an acoustic roots/Americana tune. His go-to rhythm section of Daniel Seymour on bass and Justin Amaral on drums had no problem digging in to both arrangements, since they themselves play with a wide range of Nashville cats, from Americana heavyweights Tommy Womack and David Olney to alt-country’s Chuck Mead and roots rocker Paul Burch. Then Robinson called upon the considerable talents of Michael Webb (Poco, John Fogarty) on B-3 and Rick Schell (Pinkmonkey, Pure Prairie League) on backing vocals for the electric rock side. For the acoustic roots side, he brought in rising country singer Luke Amelang on backup vocals and The SteelDrivers’ Richard Bailey on banjo.

Though best known in recent years for his blues-rock albums, Robinson is no stranger to Americana and roots. He has played with stalwarts of the rock-roots scene such as Tommy Womack and has produced albums for Americana/alt-country standouts David Olney, Mark Huff, Ray Cashman, Davis Raines, and Tiffany Huggins Grant. In 2013, Robinson was voted “Best Americana/Roots Guitar Player” by the readers of The Alternate Root Magazine.

Two music videos for Gone South are being released in conjunction with the single. Video producer-director Charles Brandon envisioned and shot two different versions to reflect the two “sides” of the song.

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