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Chip Robinson - Mylow (2010)

Chip Robinson makes a shimmering return, after more than a decade
since his last release, with a dozen songs about grace, love, loss and
redemption on his debut solo record Mylow. The album showcases
Robinson’s stellar songwriting and soulful musicianship. Mylow sounds
so personal that listening to it is like plugging a USB cable from
Robinson’s heart straight into yours.

“I had a lot of demons I was trying to exorcize,” said Robinson in his
distinguished gravel-road drawl.

Mylow’s theme of holding on in the face of adversity shines through in
the title track in which Robinson hollers, “Mylow keep your chin up,
and I’ll keep mychin up too.”

At times over the last decade Robinson said he thought he might never
make another record. But the songs kept coming. Around 2003, Robinson
moved north from his native Raleigh, N.C. to New York City, “trying to
make something better, become something better,” he said. During the
transition, he reflected on past relationships gone south. He named
the song “Mylow,” after a rabbit that belonged to one of those muses,
now flown away.

“It’s about a girl who takes her kid and is finding a new life and
the guy back home understands,” Robinson said. “He may not like it,
but he understands.”

Those same clashes between resilience and acceptance echo throughout
Mylow, from the ache of “Wings,” to the sparkle of “Beesting,” from
the yearning “Started,”to the sparse, tumbling “Fence,” from the lilt
of “Closer to the Light,” to the lullaby-like “Wishing on Cars.” It
even sounds in the rollick of “Kuschty Rye,” the album’s lone cover,
which Robinson said he was moved to record after hearing legendary
Faces keyboardist Ian “Mac” McLagan perform at Austin’s South by
Southwest.

Roots-rock superstar Eric “Roscoe” Ambel produced Mylow, as he did
Robinson’s last release in 1999. That album, Southern Lines, was the
second and final studio album by Robinson’s critically acclaimed,
hard-charging honky-tonk band The Backsliders. Ambel, who owns the
Lakeside Lounge, an East Village music hotspot where Robinson performs
regularly, recorded much of Mylow at his home studio, Lily’s Terrace.

“I had to make the Chip Robinson record because I knew how good his
songs were,” Ambel said. “And I knew how good he could sing.”

Robinson said he is happy to have the hardships that inspired Mylow in
his rear-view mirror. Now he is excited to share the music he drew
from them.

“There is a glimmer of hope in each song,” Robinson said. “No matter
how dark it might come across.” — Nate Schweber

Front cover.

01 - Preface
02 - Wings
03 - Beesting
04 - Fence
05 - Mylow
06 - Mylow Dreams
07 - Kuschty Rye
08 - Started
09 - Closer To The Light
10 - Story
11 - A Prayer Please
12 - Wishin On The Cars