Justin Robinson & the Mary Annettes
“Vultures” (mp3)
from “Bones for Tinder”
(Five Head Entertainment)

More On This Album

Justin Robinson is most often recognized as a musician in the Grammy Award-winning, old-time African-American string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops. But Justin Robinson and the Mary Annettes’ debut full-length, Bones For Tinder, paints a much more vivid picture of this eclectic individual than his work in the Carolina Chocolate Drops ever did. “Bonfire” and “Nemesis and Me” recall the crepuscular indie rock of the Go-Betweens, while the slowly unspooling lyrical intro to “Kissin and Cussin” flirts with sepia-tone hip-hop. “Ships and Verses” dishes out grooves that could prompt the foot soldiers of Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation to bust out in a buck and wing or a merry minuet, as mandolin and fiddle licks run rings around Motown handclaps. For “Vultures,” strokes across the autoharp ride skeletal funk breaks with the surprising grace of an equestrienne sitting sidesaddle. It is impossible to pigeonhole the Mary Annettes. “I couldn’t characterize it in any one genre,” concurs Robinson. “It’s what I like, which is lots of different things… and everything I’ve been influenced by.”

Justin grew up in Gastonia, NC. His mother is a cellist and classically trained vocalist, his older sister plays piano, and Justin began violin studies in the second grade. Actively listening to music—not just playing records or the radio—was an integral component of daily life. “I can’t have music on and do something else that I need my brain to be engaged in,” admits Robinson. Family favorites included ’70s R&B heartthrobs, classic rock icons, male country singers, and a lot of Tina Turner. When their parents were out, Justin and his sister scanned the radio dial surreptitiously for latest hip-hop joints.

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