| Robinella | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Robinella and the CCstringband |
| Origin | Knoxville, Tennessee, USA |
| Genres | Progressive bluegrass, Jazz blues, Pop |
| Years active | 1998 – present |
| Labels | Big Gulley Records, Columbia, Dualtone |
| Members | Robinella Bailey, Taylor Coker, Mike Seal, Nolan Nevels, Justin Hanes |
| Past members | Cruz Contreras, Billy Contreras, Steve Kovalcheck, Tom Pryor, Deric Dickens |
Robinella is the band of singer-songwriter Robin Ella Bailey. The band was first formed as Robinella and the CCstringband in the late 1990s by Robin Ella Tipton Contreras and former husband, Cruz Abdon Contreras (the "CC" in CCstringband) who met while studying at the University of Tennessee, Cruz being a jazz piano major and "Robinella" an illustration/art major. [1] They released three albums under that name before shortening it to simply Robinella with the 2006 release of Solace for the Lonely , an album that began to explore areas of pop and funk.
The University of Tennessee is a public sun- and land-grant university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, it is the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee system, with ten undergraduate colleges and eleven graduate colleges. It hosts almost 28,000 students from all 50 states and more than 100 foreign countries. In its 2019 universities ranking, U.S. News & World Report ranked UT 115th among all national universities and 52nd among public institutions of higher learning. Seven alumni have been selected as Rhodes Scholars. James M. Buchanan, M.S. '41, received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Economics. UT's ties to nearby Oak Ridge National Laboratory, established under UT President Andrew Holt and continued under the UT–Battelle partnership, allow for considerable research opportunities for faculty and students.
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the United States and United Kingdom during the mid-1950s. The terms "popular music" and "pop music" are often used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular and includes many diverse styles. "Pop" and "rock" were roughly synonymous terms until the late 1960s, when they became increasingly differentiated from each other.
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Prior to that, much of the band's work could be described as a mixture of progressive bluegrass and jazz blues. Notable early songs include many originals by "Robinella" such as "Man Over" and covers such as Nanci Griffith's "Love at the Five and Dime," and "Flashdance (What A Feeling)" from the movie soundtrack "Flashdance"
Robinella released Fly Away Bird, her much anticipated fifth album, in December 2009, along with a live album, A Sunday Kind of Love, which includes live performances from her regular show at Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria in Knoxville, Tennessee, where Robinella performed every Sunday evening for 11 years. Her most current album titled "Ode to Love" was released in 2012, The album consists mainly of love songs and boasts guitarists Frank Vignola playing and co-producing.
