An Evening with Robin Lane: Songs & Stories at The Beacon Restaurant & Warwick Cinema in Marblehead, MA, Thursday Nov. 17

Join us for an evening of songs and stories from legendary singer and songwriter Robin Lane at the beautiful Beacon Restaurant Live Music Venue and Warwick Cinema in Marblehead, MA on Thursday November 17.

The evening begins at 6 pm with Robin at a meet & greet, complete with appetizers. At 7 pm, the highly acclaimed documentary about Robin Lane, “When Things Go Wrong” will be shown. The Film’s Director (and Chartbusters’ drummer) Tim Jackson, will be on hand to offer his insights. 

At 8:30 pm, Robin performs a set of her classic hits and music from her new album, “Dirt Road to Heaven.” Her band this evening features Marblehead's own John Pfister (bass), Peter Hoffman (guitar), Jim Treacy (cajon, drums).  

The Beacon Marblehead is located at 123 Pleasant Street, in Marblehead, MA 01945. On location parking is readily available.

Admission is $25 at the door.

The website is Thebeaconmarblehead.com.

The venue phone is 781-631-0180.

facebook.com/thebeaconmarblehead 

From her days growing up in LA with a father who was songwriter and pianist for Dean Martin, to mixing with folk rock stars of the late 1960s and ‘70s like Neil Young, and marriage to Andy Summers, Robin moved to Massachusetts built a band and went on record 3 albums on Warner Bros. as Robin Lane and The Chartbusters. Videos on the new MTV during those years and into the early ‘80s helped launch the band nationally. Robin has championed women’s trauma healing with her Songbird Sings Organization. Motherhood, along with decades of writing and performing have brought Robin to this point in her amazing life. So many stories, so many insights learned and healing shared, so much more to come… This unique evening will fill you with the songs, the stories and opportunity to get to know Robin Lane.  

Robin’s new album, “Dirt Road to Heaven” on Boston’s Red On Red Records, has received praises from all over the world. Germany’s MusikReviews says the album’s “songwriting impresses with high quality, the musical implementation is unreservedly enjoyable.” Alternate Root’s Lee Zimmerman cites the album’s “confidence and assurance conveyed through the effort overall.”  

British Columbia’s “Go” writes “There is a lot of life in the songs… a couple of ballads that hit you down deep.” Locally, Metronome’s Drew McManus calls “Dirt Road to Heaven” “a collection of American music that rivals Brandi Carlile and Joan Baez.” While Boston Herald’s Brett Milano says that Robin Lane is ‘still the musical friend who’ll join you walking that dirt road” or in Marblehead on November 17.

 

Robin Lane “Dirt Road To Heaven”

“No one forgets the first time they heard Robin Lane; it's like losing your virginity,” writes Peter Felcknor, a long-time superfan, upon hearing Robin’s new album, Dirt Road to Heaven, out today-August 12, on Red on Red Records. The album’s theme, writes Boston Herald’s Brett Milano “is she’s still the musical friend who’ll join you walking that dirt road.” He loves the album’s inspirational range of music: “Country on ‘Rodeo Clown,’ rockabilly on ‘Hard Life,’ full-throttle Byrds on ‘Sunshine Blue Skies.’ There’s also a couple of shiver-inducing ballads that show her ever-increasing warmth and range….(and) a few helpings of sly humor (see ‘Last Cute Minute’)."

CBS TV/Sirius XM’s Bill Flanagan told Robin, “I think it might be the best record you’ve ever made.”

“All I’ll Ever Need” is the album’s music video. It features couples being happy together while Robin sings in the recording studio with her band and in New England’s beautiful outdoors.  

Dirt Road To Heaven is a collection of Americana music that sounds great alongside artists such as Brandi Carlile and Joan Baez. Robin’s motto of “Music is my healing tool” has paved her uniquely uplifting “dirt road to heaven” process from the get-go. Her journey has become even more effective and powerful, locally and globally, this century.       

Peter is one of many fans that have been into Robin Lane since “we saw this petite blonde live in a NYC punk club” when she was touring behind her rock EP, When Things Go Wrong in the early 1980s. 

The daughter of Ken Lane, who wrote songs for Dean Martin, and a mother who was a fashion model, Robin grew up in Los Angeles. She was part of the music community in the late 1960s. In Laurel Canyon she collaborated with members of Crazy Horse and sang with Neil Young on "Round and Round (It Won't Be Long)" on his album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.    

After a two-year marriage with future Police guitarist Andy Summers, in the late 1970s Robin left LA behind, and moved to Boston. She formed Robin Lane and the Chartbusters, integrating punk and new wave with West Coast folk, and East Coast rock. Their three albums for Warner Bros. were Robin Lane and the Chartbusters (1980), the live EP 5 Live, and Imitation Life (1981). The rock radio-charting song “When Things Go Wrong” became the 11th music video played on MTV on its first broadcast day in 1981.   

In 1985, Robin started performing solo, at European festivals and opening for artists including Warren Zevon, John Hiatt, Taj Mahal, Tim Finn, Dave Mason, Steve Earle, T-Bone Burnett, Richard Thompson.  She accepted the Boston Music Award for Outstanding Female Vocalist in 1988. In 1990 Susanna Hoffs (The Bangles) recorded Robin's song "Wishing on Telstar" for her first solo album, When You're a Boy. Robin also sang on the album.

In 1996, Robin released the album Cat Bird Seat, which showed her evolution into a subdued and (at times) “country-fied” sound that her super fan describes as “the angry machine that was the Chartbusters.”     

After a 2003 reunion Chartbusters’ album, Piece of Mind, Robin released solo albums: Out of the Ashes (2011), The Sweet Candy Collection (2011), and A Woman’s Voice (2013). In 2010 Robin founded Songbird Sings, a Shelburne Falls, MA-based organization dedicated to helping people work through and recover from traumatic experiences by writing and recording their own songs.      

In late 2021, Robin signed with Boston’s indie label Red on Red Records, which supports strong women creators. Label owner Justine Covault is honored Robin’s with the roster, “Robin writes unflinchingly honest songs that reflect the light and the dark in the world. Her voice is distinctive and gorgeous. When she plays and sings, the audience is spellbound.”