- All I’ll Ever Need Robin Lane 3:07
Robin Lane was born into a musical family in the city of Los Angeles. Her father was songwriter and musical director for Dean Martin who wrote the hit “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime.” During high school, the valley girl became immersed in the music scene and the alternative life style of the late 60’s and was inspired to write her own songs. She began informal collaborations with the band Crazy Horse. This association led to her more formal debut – singing with Neil Young on his album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.
Robin opted to leave the wild and overwhelming music and show business scene of LA, moved to Pennsylvania farm country, Manhattan, and finally Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was in Cambridge in the late 70’s, in an environment of cultural and intellectual experimentation that Robin was able to integrate punk and new wave influences, East Coast folk, and West Coast rock in her songs and her band — the legendary Robin Lane and The Chartbusters. The band included ex-Modern Lovers Asa Brebner and Leroy Radcliffe who infected Lane’s songs and sensibilities even further with their garage rock sound.
Robin Lane and the Chartbusters recorded three albums for Warner Brothers Records: Robin Lane and the Chartbusters (1980), the live EP 5 Live, and Imitation Life (1981). Two singles from her first album, “When Things Go Wrong” and “Why Do You Tell Lies?” received extensive national airplay. Robin Lane & The Chartbusters had the 11th video played on MTV.
The New Rolling Stone Record Guide gave the first album a prestigious four-star rating. Wrote Geoffrey Himes for the Washington Post, “Though Blondie’s Deborah Harry and the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde have had more hits and better press, Robin Lane looms large as the most talented female artist to come out of New Wave Rock.”
Robin Lane and the Chartbusters toured extensively as headliners and opening for such bands as The Kinks, The Cars, Hall and Oates and XTC, The band’s last album together was the indie release, 1984’s Heart Connection, which was well received.
In 1985, after the band stopped performing together, Robin split her time between raising a daughter, honing her songwriting, and performing solo. She appeared at festivals in Holland, England, and Germany, and opened for Warren Zevon, John Hiatt, Taj Mahal, Tim Finn, Dave Mason, Steve Earle, and T-Bone Burnett. She accepted the Boston Music Award for Outstanding Female Vocalist in 1988. In 1990 Susanna Hoffs (Bangles) recorded Robin’s song “Wishing on Telstar” for her first solo album, When You’re A Boy. Robin also sang on the CD.
In 1995 Robin released Cat Bird Seat on Ocean Records, her first album in a decade, and toured the East Coast for over a year. This CD garnered rave reviews, including a featured article on the cover of Billboard magazine.
In 2002 The Chartbusters reunited. Their CD, Piece of Mind, was released in February, 2003.
In 2010 Robin founded Songbird Sings. Songbird Sings is dedicated to helping people work through and recover from traumatic experiences by writing and recording their own songs. The workshops help to transform those who’ve been silenced by domestic violence, sexual exploitation, childhood abuse, and the horrors of war. She is involved with Theo and Paul Epstein’s Foundation to be Named Later and performs with Peter Gammons, Theo Epstein, Bill Janovitz, Tanya Donnelly at Hot Stove Cool Music, each year raising money for charities. Her workshops have been supported, among others, by Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy Foundation. Robin continues writing songs, performing House Concerts and various café’s and clubs.
SOURCE: Official Bio
LINKS:
http://www.songbirdsings.org/
https://redonredrobinlane.bandcamp.com/