Miss Robin Banks featuring The Moeller Brothers – Lost in America
Independent
10 Tracks – 39 minutes
Miss Robin Banks is Canadian born but relocated to Dallas in 1999, where she has made her home ever since. She has been performing for over 30 years throughout the US and Canada and has been a popular performer in Jamaican resort hotels. Her vocals are supported by Johnny Mueller (Fabulous Thunderbirds, James Cotton) on guitar, his brother Jay Mueller on drums, Bruce Bear (Duke Robillard) on keyboards, Drew Allain on bass, and Steve Marriner and Rory Platt on harmonica. The album consists of eight original songs written by Robin and two covers.
She opens the album with “Not Today”. She advises “When you wake up in the mornin’, and bad news hits you without warnin’, just roll over and keep snorin’ and say not today.” “Just give your world a little shake up and say not today…don’t mess with me today.” On “Supersonic Rocket Ship” she says she wants to “fly right out of this world. Everything’s goin’ crazy or is it just me?” She promises “I am taking you with me”. Things get rocking with solos by Steve on harmonica and Johnny’s guitar. “On “it’s My Time”, she declares, I’m warning you, I’m warning you, I done paid these dues and I wore out my shoes. And working, so it’s my time. It’s my time, I’m gonna sing what I want to sing”.
She continues to express her views on “Modern Man”. “In one hand and right out the other is where my money goes. Brother, brother fighting each other. Everybody knows, I really can’t understand it, how did we get so cold? Modern man, modern man, oh, it’s time to feel again, 2025 still alive, but he should be in jail. I really can’t understand it. How did he get so bold?” Bruce’s gets an organ solo in this one. “On These Days” she cries, “Well now writing songs and righting wrongs is all I seem to do these days. I’m trying to stay strong and just move along. Maybe things will be better than they are. These days, and I can’t imagine, living in a world without you.” Rory gets a solo harmonica in this song.
Guest Dale Rivard blends his pedal steel guitar with Johnny’s guitar on the country styled “It’s Too Late”, She says, “it’s too late for you to love me, it’s too late for you to care, just like that old Willie song, you say I’m always on your mind. I ain’t playing second Fiddle”. “Never 51/Maple Leave It Alone” addresses the current push by Washington to declare Canada the 51st state. She states emphatically “My home, my home, my home will never be 51. Maple, leave it alone,” Her crying sentiment is reinforced by Bruce’s organ slinking along.
“Some Other Day, Some Other Time” was written by Leonard Bernstein with lyric by Betty Comden and Adolph Green for the Broadway musical On the Town” in 1945. It was later adapted as a 1949 movie starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Ann Miller. Tony Bennett then had a hit with the song in 1975. Robin blasts out the song in true cabaret fashion stating “Every time I want to hold you, every time I want to kiss you, you just say, hey, hey, baby, some other day some other time. Tell me why you keep treating me this way”. Her second cover is Albert King’s “Cold, Cold Feeling” from his 1975 album Ice Pickin’. She sings the blues with a deep pleading with Johnny’s guitar bursting out. She sings, “I’ve got a cold, cold feeling, it’s just like ice around my heart. I know I’m going to quit somebody every time that cold, cold feeling starts. You treat me like a prisoner because my hands are tied, everything you do to me, is stacking up inside.” The album concludes with “Talk Dirty to Ya”, as she asks in a not too subtle fashion “Wasn’t that good for you. “Sock it to me one more time. I know you’re getting old, but one more, one more time. Slow motion, tonight, yeah!”
Robin delivers a solid set of blues with a crossover into some roots with a crossover to country, all handled in comforting, strong vocals and ably backed by her top-notch band.
