Bruce Robison 
w/ White Rhino, The Whisperjets, Burt Floyd & The Carolina Band
Sat. Nov. 22
4 p.m.
$25, $20/adv.
Awendaw Green, 4879 Highway 17
(843) 568-6728
www.awendawgreen.com
www.suncoastpromotions.com
www.brucerobison.com
“Angry All The Time” — from the album Bruce Robison
Audio File
“The tradition that I come from is the white man’s blues,” says Bruce Robison, chatting while pulled off the road during a drive from home in Austin, Texas to a gig in Oklahoma City. “Whether it was Willie or Hank or Waylon, those were sad songs.”
These days, more than half of the music on mainstream country radio is about good times, a catchy hook or a sappy lyric about drinking or carousing. Maybe it’s the fortune that comes with being a star — country singers these days are as popular as rock bands and rappers. There’s just nothing to be down about.
And Robison’s life isn’t too bad either. He’s penned number one hits for the Dixie Chicks, Tim McGraw, and two songs that George Strait covered, in addition to successfully touring around the country with his honky-tonkin’ five-piece band. But that doesn’t mean he can give any less of an effort.
“When I had my first hit song, that was one of the main misconceptions I had in my life, that it was going to get easier,” says Robison. “Whether you’re somebody who’s never had a hit or you’re Kris Kristofferson, you still have to give them the right song at the right moment.”
Tunes that put Robison on the map (in addition to being the brother of fellow songwriter Charlie Robison and husband of country star Kelly Willis) include “Travelin’ Soldier” (Dixie Chicks) and the Tim McGraw and Faith Hill duet “Angry All the Time.” The latter he wrote about his parent’s divorce. The lyrics demonstrate his ability to tap into the tender spots of the human soul:
Here we are, what is left of a husband and a wife four good kids/Who have a way of gettin’ on with their lives
I’m not old but I’m getting a whole lot older every day/It’s too late to keep from goin’ crazy, I got to get away
The reasons that I can’t stay don’t have a thing to do with being in love/And I understand that lovin’ a man shouldn’t have to be this rough
You ain’t the only one who feels like this world left you far behind/I don’t know why you gotta be angry all the time.
“Country music, to me, was always about the shared experience. It made you feel better because you knew somebody else was going through something like that,” says Robison. “I’ve had scores of people over the years tell me that song meant something to them because it relays something they relate to.”
Lest Robison sound like a downer, even his sadder songs are generally accompanied by a dancing beat, and his shows are known as raucous affairs. He plays the Awendaw Green in support of his latest collection, The New World, as well as a forthcoming greatest hits album, with all the songs newly recorded.
“It was a lot of fun to revisit those songs. Some of them have really changed over the years, because of playing them live or because of being hits for other people, which kind of changes them in my mind too,” he says. “And I’m still looking to light a fire with a record of my own.”
Writing with a specific artist in mind hasn’t worked often for Robison, with the exception of George Strait’s “Wrapped.” He claims his best songwriting luck comes when “I sort of free my mind and just try to write something that I find interesting and hope someone else will.”
And that tends to be the case. Robison’s made a successful career splitting time between studio recording, touring, and selling his songs in Nashville.
“Country music has always been the voice of the common people, and it’s gotten complicated. It used to be the music of rural areas, but now everywhere is suburban and everyone has the same influences,” he says. “There’s always been more David Sugar than Merle Haggard, even back in the day. But country still is the last place for sincere songs. I think that’s the strength of country music and what its place has always been.”
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