The Black Crowes

Formed by Marietta, GA-raised brothers Chris and Rich Robinson in the mid-’80s, The Black Crowes have made a career out of being ahead of their time. The group’s surprise stardom in 1990 challenged pop metal’s commercial supremacy a full year before grunge broke. Fueled by a swaggering rendition of Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle,” their debut, Shake Your Money Maker, was a runaway success that inspired more than a few rock acts to ditch hair spray and spandex for vintage Rolling Stones and Faces albums. On subsequent titles like 1992’s The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion and 1998’s By Your Side, The Black Crowes serve up an earthy throwback sound that preceded the retro-blues-rock boom of the late 2000s. Even when the brothers started devoting more time to their solo careers, the rock veterans once again proved prescient when 2009’s jammy Before the Frost… Until the Freeze helped pave the way for a 21st-century resurgence in Grateful Dead-style lysergic Americana.