Rick Robinson at Loudon Country Hall (Manchester, NH, TV 9; courtesy of Bucky Mitchell)
Rick and his band The Bayou Boys held forth here in the northeast for the better part of two decades, and recorded two albums for John Penny’s Belmont Records label. Rick Robinson’s roots were in New Hampshire, but he moved to Florida a few years ago.
Rick’s long-time friend and drummer Bucky Mitchell shares this reminiscence:
Playing country music with Rick for many years was a great thrill for me, and we got a chance to play with many artists such as Dick Curless, Marty Haggard, The Hager Twins from Hee- Haw, as well as working with Kenny Price, Buck Trent, and Jana Jae who were Hee- Haw Stars. The Bayou Boys also backed up Grand Ole Opry Stars Barbara Fairchild, Johnny Russell, Dave Dudley, John Anderson, and even backed up Carl and Pearl Butler! We opened shows for Roy Clark, Larry Gatlin and The Gatlin Bros., Emmy Lou Harris, and Johnny Paycheck. Playing country music was what we were about and Rick Robinson was a great country music singer!We (Rick Robinson and The Bayou Boys) were at a hotel playing one time, and Ernest Tubb was staying a the same hotel where we were playing. He was on a show with Hank Snow down at the local auditorium. Rick Robinson saw Ernest Tubb strolling around the lobby of the hotel and went to him and asked if something was wrong. Ernest Tubb had missed his own bus to the auditorium, as he told the driver to leave at a certain time no matter who was not there. Rick gave Ernest a ride to the auditorium and Ernest had to put five bucks in the band fund jar for being late for his own show. Ernest Tubb always remembered that ride every time we saw him in Nashville after that, and we all laughed about it.—Bucky Mitchell ♫
Sadly Rick passed away Nov 20th 2013. Rick was one of those singers that was a cut above the rest and in a perfect world would have been a country music star.
Back on November 12th, Stan published a short blog post entitled “Great version of a great song.” He writes:
Here is a song that John Lincoln Wright wrote. In my mind there are only two people that did this song justice and treated the song as intended, one of course was JLW and the other being Rick Robinson.
So here I present a great singer, singing a great song:
There will be a Memorial Gathering of friends and family on Sunday, December 8th from 1-5 PM at the Woburn Elks Club at 295 Washington Street in Woburn, MA.
[NOTE: For some reason the link to the YouTube video of Rick Robinson singing “One Drink Closer to Heaven” is not working. Try clicking here or click on the Youtube logo.]
UPDATE: Bucky is posting more videos on YouTube. This live performance of “I Don’t Want to Cry” shows off Rick’s vocal skills, with solid performances from the rest of the band:
Note the three-camera collage of Rick, Larry, and Bucky singing on the chorus at c. 2:10.
UPDATE 2: Bucky reports on the Memorial Gathering yesterday:
It was a great gathering of family and friends for Rick Robinson on Sunday. His 5 daughters were there along with Linda their mom. Two of his brothers were there and Laura Yousik came up from Florida, as she and Rick had been living down there for a few years. Some people that I did not know attended, and many that I did know, like George Nelson, Thom Scagliotti, Chuck Parrish, Dave Broderick, Larry Flint and Jean, Stan Martin, Glenn Shambroom and Nina, John Hicks , Stan Jr., Tina Welch and Rick Curless, Tim and Gail Barrett, Bucky Bear, Jimmy Allen and Sheila, Mike Casey (a Dj from WDLW and WCAV Radio and an old friend of Mark Burns). Steve Morse from The Boston Globe dropped by, and country music historian Gordy Brown. Please forgive me as I probably forgot a few as the room was full for the whole four hours. Lots of pictures and music videos.
The room was full of respect and love for our long time friend and great country singer Rick Robinson. RIP ♥—Bucky Mitchell ♫
Hillbilly at Harvard 