Into The Night With Robinson & Rohe

Bruce Von Stiers

Liam Robinson is a banjo and accordion player. He also does vocals. Jean Rohe plays guitar and does vocals. Together, they are the alt folk duo, Robinson & Rohe.

Liam and Jean have been performing as a duo for over fifteen years. Building a repertoire of songs and a solid fan base led them all over the U.S. and many locations in Europe. Along the way, they recorded a well-received EP titled The Longest Winter.

This year finds the duo with a new album out. This one is titled Into The Night.

Into The Night has eleven songs and a play time of thirty-six minutes. The album was produced by Robinson & Rohe. It is being released on the Righteous Babe Records label. If that name sounds familiar, it is because it is the record label that Ani DiFranco started. All of the songs on the album were written by Robinson & Rohe.

Regarding this album, DiFranco is quoted as saying that it “has all the vibes I love about folk music – well crafted songs written from the heart and played with the hands, harmonies that lift the spirit – but it also features a sophistication of arrangement and production.” That is quite an endorsement from a top tiered artist. Then again, if she didn't feel that Robinson & Rohe had a lot of talent, DiFranco wouldn't have their album released on her label.

The album was done over a few years. The songs were written in 2019. The basic music tracks were recorded in 2020, just before the pandemic went into full swing. Horns and backing vocals were added to the songs in 2021 and the remainder of the music and vocals were completed sometime later. All of the pieces and parts were put together before the end of 2022 with engineering by Jake Lummus and mixing by David Boucher, both of them well known for their work with major artists.

On the album Jean Rohe played the acoustic guitar and did vocals. Liam Robinson played piano, banjo, accordion and did vocals. They were joined by Christopher Tordini on acoustic and electric bass, Tony Mason on drums and percussion, Jon Cowherd on organ and Duncan Wickel on fiddle. There was Jason Burger doing a bit of the drumming, Bob Lanzetti on electric guitar, Steven Bernstein on slide trumpet and Courtny Hartman with some acoustic guitar.

Additionally, there was Ben Holmes on trumpet and flugelhorn, Jacob Garchik on trombone and tuba and Sam Sadigursky on clarinet and tenor and bass clarinet. Nathan Koci played the French horn and Carl Maraghi played the baritone saxophone and the bass clarinet.

The album also had Michelle Willis, Starr Busby and Ahmad Simmons doing backing vocals.

The first song on the album is the title track, Into The Night. It has great vocals and terrific backing music, especially the fiddle and guitar.

Off Track is a very melodic tune with fluid vocals and nice background music.

Where I'm Coming From has a fun folk tone that has great banjo and fiddle backing Jean's vocals.

Ways Down The Road is soft and slow with mellow vocals.

Hey, Houdini is a cool song dealing with the exploits of Harry Houdini. But is it really about him or someone else?

The album has a strictly instrumental version of Ways Down The Road which is titled Ways Down The Road – Chorale. It is actually quite beautiful.

Singing Like A Saw is a toe tapping tune done in fun folk styling.

A somewhat sad sounding song is Where Did You Go? The vocals are fluid yet somewhat aching. There is some nice clarinet music in the song.

Follow has both Jean and Liam singing together with a soft and gentle, melodic sound.

One Last Waltz is a great song. Come take a last waltz as they call for last call, even you don't know the dance steps. There isn't any reason for you not taking one last turn on the dance floor.

The last song on the album is a reprise of Into The Night.

Robinson & Rohe have a distinct alt folk sound. Their use of banjo and violin in their songs is a constant for that genre of music. But adding trumpet, clarinet, saxophone and other horn instruments makes their music pretty unique. Jean's harmonies in Hey, Houdini were especially appealing. Her vocals in the other songs were well done too as were Liam's. And I really liked the instrumental version of Ways Down The Road that they included on the album.

Into The Night is set to be released at the end of May. It can be pre-ordered at this time.

To find out more about Robinson & Rohe and maybe pre-order the album, visit https://www.robinsonandrohe.com/

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© 2023 Bruce E Von Stiers