Career

After an injury in college ended a potential football career, Charlie Robison came to Austin, Texas in the late 1980s and had stints in the bands Chaparral, Millionaire Playboys, and Two Hoots and a Holler. He went solo with his album "Bandera" in 1996. He subsequently signed with Sony and released "Life of the Party" on Sony's subsidiary Lucky Dog Records. The album gave him three of his biggest hits including "My Hometown." His next release was a live disc called "Unleashed Live," which is credited to Charlie, brother Bruce, and Jack Ingram. He then signed with Columbia Records for "Step Right Up" and another live album.

In 2003, Robison was a judge on the first season of the TV singing competition Nashville Star.

Unhappy with the expectations & limitations of being a Nashville country artist, he moved to a smaller independent label, Dualtone, for "Good Times" in 2004, followed by extensive touring and newfound control over his career. Accordingly, his sound began to evolve away from mainstream/Nashville country and toward more Southern & hard rock influences.

Five years after the release of Good Times, Robison released Beautiful Day on June 23, 2009 on Dualtone. This is the first CD he has self-produced. Both albums feature several songs written by Nashville singer/songwriter Keith Gattis.

His song "Good Times" was featured in the credits of HBO's original series True Blood in the first season's third episode.

In 2009 he embarked on an East Coast tour with stops in Little Rock, Nashville, Atlanta, Raleigh, New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis, Iowa City, and Memphis to promote "Beautiful Day." Since then he has played primarily in Texas, with occasional shows in Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado.

He is known for playing classic rock covers during his live shows. Some of these include: "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "Highway to Hell" (AC/DC), "Call me the Breeze" (JJ Cale), "Rocket Man" (Elton John), and several Rolling Stones songs, including "Dead Flowers" and "Honky Tonk Women." He also plays several songs associated with Willie Nelson, including "Whiskey River" and "Stay all Night."

His live band includes Mark Tokach (lead guitar), Abe Combest (Drums), Zeke Benenate (bass) J.C. Burt (steel guitar) and Chris Valdez (road manager/additional guitar). Prior to Beautiful Day, his band was known as The Enablers and included Keith Robinson (drums), Scott Esbeck (bass) and Travis Woodard (drums). Other notable members have included Kim Deschamps (pedal & lap steel, mandolin & guitar from 2000-2009), Kevin Carroll (guitar), Chris Grady (bass), Louis Landry (keyboards/accordion), and Kris Brown (bass). His recordings have also featured special guests Lloyd Maines (who produced Step Right Up and Good Times), Rich Brotherton, Charlie Sexton, and Natalie Maines (duet on "The Wedding Song" and harmony vocals on "El Cerrito Place").

In the fall of 2014, Charlie Robison opened Alamo Icehouse in San Antonio, Texas with former MLB player Brooks Kieschnick.

Personal life

Robison married Emily Erwin of The Dixie Chicks at the Cibolo Creek Ranch in May 1999. They have three children together: Charles Augustus, called "Gus", born November 11, 2002 and twins Julianna Tex and Henry Benjamin, born on April 14, 2005. Charlie and Emily divorced on August 6, 2008 after nine years of marriage.

Discography

Albums

Title	Album details	Peak chart positions
		US Country	US Heat
Bandera	Release date: August 6, 1996 Label: Viero Records	—	—
Life of the Party	Release date: September 8, 1998 Label: Lucky Dog	71	—
Unleashed Live	Release date: September 26, 2000 Label: Lucky Dog	—	—
Step Right Up	Release date: April 10, 2001 Label: Columbia Records	27	23
Live	Release date: May 6, 2003 Label: Columbia Records	51	—
Good Times	Release date: September 21, 2004 Label: Dualtone Records	52	—
Beautiful Day	Release date: June 23, 2009 Label: Dualtone Records	33	25
Live at Billy Bob's Texas	Release date: June 4, 2013 Label: Smith Music Group	63	33
High Life	Release date: October 1, 2013 Label: Jetwell Records	48	25
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Singles

Year	Single	Peak positions	Album
		US Country
1999	"Barlight"	60	Life of the Party
2000	"My Hometown"	65
	"Poor Man's Son"	67
2001	"I Want You Bad"	35	Step Right Up
	"Right Man for the Job"	—
2003	"Walter"	58	Live
2004	"El Cerrito Place"	—	Good Times
2005	"Photograph"	—
2006	"Wild Man from Borneo"	—	Why the Hell Not: The Songs of Kinky Friedman
2009	"Reconsider"	—	Beautiful Day
	"Down Again"	—
2010	"Feelin' Good"	—
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Music videos

Year	Video	Director
1998	"Barlight"	Adrian Pasdar
1999	"My Hometown"
2000	"Poor Man's Son"	Adam Little
2001	"I Want You Bad"	Trey Fanjoy
	"Right Man for the Job"
2004	"El Cerrito Place"	Adrian Pasdar
2005	"Photograph"

Tributes

He appeared on Kindred Spirits: A tribute to Johnny Cash, singing "Don't Take Your Guns to Town".

In 2006, Charlie Robison performed "Wildman from Borneo" on the Kinky Friedman tribute "Why the hell not..." The songs of Kinky Friedman.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]