-FREIGHT TRAIN BOOGIE- "COME ON HOME" REVIEW "As soon as the needle hits the first groove, or whatever the equivalent would be in today’s CD age, it’s obvious that Robin Dean Salmon has neither lost his touch nor come anywhere near hitting the bottom of his creativity barrel. His latest offering consists of fifteen originals, and once again he’s got too many noteworthy sidemen to list here providing backup. His feet are firmly planted in the alternative country vein, with an occasional foray into traditional terrain with a song such as the title track, or rockabilly, with “Last Train” and the closing cut “Daddy Is A Short Man”. Salmon’s songs run the emotional gamut from pensive reflection, patriotism, (with some provisos), to the sheer joy of just for the hell of it rock n’ roll of “Arizona Rain”. You might hear some echoes of other artists herein but the finished product is ultimately pure RDS". -Don Grant- FREIGHT TRAIN BOOGIE-   RADIOIDY REVIEW - "COMEON HOME" “Come On Home” by Robin Dean Salmon is a refreshing Americana reminder of what a potent, poetic look at the world can do for the soul. With catchy lyrics and toe tapping grooves, this CD pulls the heart as well as the body to the soul. The songwriting is extremely strong, with very memorable and well-resolved choruses throughout, to nicely complement the relevant and meaningful lyrics. Robin Dean's vocals clearly and articulately convey the poetic lyrics, with strength, feeling, and pitch-perfection. The music behind Robin Dean's voice is very professional and tight, with a definite country influence. “You Are The One” relates a story of love and faith that strikes a chord with each word. The strong religious heartfelt lyrics of “Chimayo” display Robin Dean's ability to give life and words to faith, pain and loss. "Just a Matter of Time" features some very lush harmonies to add to the strength of the chorus. This emotional collection of tracks will have you dancing, laughing, and crying, and is a great addition to your collection if you are a fan of Americana, country, or country/rock. - LEE AND THE RADIOINDY TEAM-    “Each song is solidly written and performed, all the ingredients are there. Miles better than the normal ‘big-hat’ crap.” David Cowling – AMERICANA UK   CD REVIEW: Robin Dean Salmon - Gasoline By Kevin Zarnett – Muses Muse - 12/21/05   Making a solid contribution to the Americana genre, is singer-songwriter and guitarist Robin Dean Salmon, with his seventh album "Gasoline". Recorded in Nashville by Eric Fritch, and produced by the artist himself, they manage to get the most out of every tune, as almost every track sounds like it would sit comfortably on country radio. The album "Houston Kid" by Rodney Crowell (who sings on the CD's first single "Maybe I Do"), was a major instigator in Salmon's latest musical direction, and he clearly draws well on those lessons. There's a good mix of rockers and ballads, with strong playing and cool instrumentation throughout, most notably the pedal steel of Al Perkins, who wisely gets frequently featured. However, what Salmon tends to do, and quite effectively, is combine instruments to create a sound that is sympathetic to the song. This is illustrated on the CD's strongest cut, "When You Have it All", where fiddle and pedal steel work together to flesh out the ache of lost brotherhood, matched by Salmon's voice in a John Prine shade. While most of "Gasoline" rests on the pop side of country, some more traditional country flavor comes out on the songs "Draw the Line", the fiddle blazing "Plane, Train" and the sweet-picking workout of "Still in Love with You". The CD may lack a bona fide blockbuster type single, the title-track being the most likely suspect, but Robin Dean Salmon's "Gasoline" starts out strong and doesn't let up. THE ROOTS MUSIC REPORT   Robin Dean Salmon seems to have written every song on this album with a style that reflects the fact that he has more than paid his dues whilst performing them the same way.    His new release “Gasoline” has a bit of a raunchy feel that is simply kick ass.    RMR loves this CD and we are confident that any Roots/Americana country fan will agree with our opinion of this new album. FREIGHT TRAIN BOOGIE This is Salmon's eighth release, but it's a first listen for this writer, and a pretty damn good starting point for a musical introduction. Imagine Buddy Holly doing “The Houston Kid” and you'll be as close as damn is to swearing in getting a grip on Gasoline. Aided and abetted by a plethora of Nashville's finest sidemen, and a duet with Rodney Crowell on “Maybe I Do”, Gasoline is a showcase for lyrics that not only rhyme, they say something intelligent to boot, which, unfortunately, isn't all that common in much music these days. If you're looking for a list of standout tracks, forget it; there's nary a dud to be found on this baby. Well, OK, the afore-mentioned “Maybe I Do” has the makings of a classic, but then so does “Baby Please Try”, “Echo Of You”…, oh, to hell with it, just pick this one up and see if you don't agree as I do, when Rodney says: “Robin Salmon is smart, funny, poetic and in possession of a melodic wit. Anyone got a problem with that?” Look for this one in a Best of 2006 list. -Don Grant- SOUTHEAST PERFORMER MAGAZINE - Robin Dean Salmon - Gasoline Engineered by Eric Fritsch Mastered by Jim Demain for Yes Master Produced by Robin Dean Salmon at Eastwood Studios in Nashville, TN Robin Dean Salmon's latest effort, Gasoline, is the perfect album to help country music lovers to ease their rocker friends into the country genre. While the album is unmistakably embedded in Salmon's country and bluegrass roots, his punk music background is also evident. Gasoline deftly showcases Salmon's Texas roots and the influence of Johnny Cash and Bob Wills. The entire album is heavy on guitars, piano, fiddle, and backup vocalists. Yet the high energy of Gasoline keeps the songs from blending together, replaying the same sound over and over. The band's punk influence is evident on the track "When I Find You" as the beats drive the chorus. On the track "Baby Please Try," the fiddle's minor chords match the emotion of Salmon's voice. "Still in Love with You" has the up-tempo drive and fun lyrics to wean the rocker into bluegrass territory. Salmon's lyrics match the sound well. While some songs are poetic, many are humorous and have playful hints of sarcasm. Several mention drowning sorrows in the proverbial whiskey bottle. Whether it is bourbon, rum, vodka, or whiskey, the belief in alcohol as panacea to love's troubles is a well-worn universal. When first listening to this album, it is impossible to imagine this singer as a resident player at the legendary CBGBs in New York. Yet that punk intensity translates well, transforming what could have been an everyday country song into something that music lovers outside of Nashville can easily enjoy. (Self-released) -Allyson Wells- Robin Dean Salmon Gasoline 13 song CD Do you like your country, country? As in, free of the schlocky pop and fakery which seems to pervade much of today's mainstream country music? Then Robin Dean Salmon is your man. Salmon rides with the traditional honky-tonk style of country & western with just a touch of old time rock-n-roll attitude. His songs would fit well in just about any dive between Jacksonville and Amarillo, the perfect soundtrack for your favorite roadhouse. MISH MASH INDIE MUSIC REVIEW January, 2006 ISSUE. THE ADVERTISER UK Robin Dean Salmon- Gasoline. Pete Smith's Reviews Pete Smith pete_fabam@hotmail.com 2006-02-06 Pete Smith’s Reviews The Advertiser (UK) – 3 February 2006. We rarely come across country performers from South Africa so Robin Dean Salmon became of immediate interest to me. The Salmon family were actively opposed to apartheid and in due course pressure from the authorities forced them to flee to America, to Texas, and that it where the young Robin learned to love and perform country music – but not immediately. After performing with rock and pop bands and releasing two albums under the name of Jack West, Salmon heard Rodney Crowell’s “Houston Kid” and his musical world was turned around. “Gasoline” (Shut Eye Records) is Robin’s seventh and one that proves he has a place in country music. The 13 original songs are well crafted and Salmon proves he has learned much from life on numbers like the touching ballad “When You Have It All”, the foot-tapping “Still In Love With You” and the story of the “Broken Down Car”. The first single is “Maybe I Do”, recorded as a duet with Robin’s main influence Rodney Crowell. Robin Dean Salmon Gasoline (PAUL STREET) by Jason MacNeil/ POP MATTERS No stranger to the music scene, Robin Dean Salmon was one of the members of the band See No Evil, a group that released two albums that were critically acclaimed but, like damn near everything else, seemed to fall through the cracks. The fact that Salmon almost died in a motorcycle accident probably didn’t help, either. Nonetheless, Salmon survived said crash and has put out a few albums since that 1992 wipeout, including a few under the name Jack West. But a recent Rodney Crowell album seems to have been the muse that lit Salmon’s creative sparks and energies. And while he’s helped out by Mr. Crowell on one track, Salmon takes his own roots/country approach to several of these numbers. Straddling the line between mid-tempo roots pop and roots rock, Salmon finds a nice balance on “Lonesome”, a song with mandolin and a decent series of hooks, sort of like a Blue Rodeo track influenced more by Jim Cuddy and less by Greg Keelor. Halfway through the bridge he briefly picks the tempo up, but quickly returns to the blueprint. Another fair comparison would be Charlie Major or Hal Ketchum, both singer-songwriters that found brief success in Nashville’s “Music Row” and have continued creating fine work since their heydays. Salmon has great success when he opts for a style that brings to mind current troubadours like Kieran Kane and Kevin Welch, particularly on the folksy, comforting “When You Have It All”, with its pedal steel accents. Think of how Springsteen reworked “Mansion on the Hill” in recent tours and you should get the gist of this track—a safe but solid nugget knee-deep in traditional country. From there Salmon breaks things open a bit into a quasi-Celtic sway during the chorus. Salmon pushes the envelope somewhat with the polished and near perfect roots pop of “When I Find You”, which hits the ground running and has a gorgeously simple melody that brings to mind Alabama’s “I’m in a Hurry”, only performed at half the speed. But Salmon returns to that distant, Springsteen-like format with the fine and airtight “Baby Please Try”, which has some great vocals and even finer arrangements, despite it having a lot going on at the same time. It’s not the highlight, but by that point on the album he’s four for four, which is 100 percent for those fractionally challenged. But he hits a slight rut with the rather hokey “Plane, Train”, which relies on a series of harmonies to sell the toe-tapping song from start to finish. Fortunately it’s quickly forgettable and extremely forgivable when the pristine and well-crafted, down-tempo ballad “Maybe I Do” saunters along brilliantly. In no hurry and allowing Salmon to cruise along with the music, this track seems to be heads, if not shoulders, above the other quality ditties here. Crowell helps out on lead vocals here, only buffering what is already a track that shines. Salmon is able to make the right choice nearly each and every time in terms of style, tempo and all the intangibles that make great songs separate themselves from good or very good ones. A good example of this is how “Gasoline” takes a moment or two before finding its footing and coming off as a quality Steve Earle-like track that Earle, when not getting married, on tour or writing a new album, could do in his sleep. However, he seems to strike out with the crawling honky tonk of “Draw the Line”, a line that he should have drawn prior to perhaps creating this tune. An improvement is “Sympathy”, which comes off as a run-of-the-mill roots pop tune you would expect to find around this time in the album. But it ends almost as strong as it started off nearly an hour ago, with “Broken Down Car” bringing to mind the likes of Mike Plume.   MILES OF MUSIC Robin Dean Salmon-Gasoline. (Paul Street) Robinson Through various styles, beginning with the gutsy post-punk edge of his New York-via-Austin group See No Evil, on through to his power-pop years fronting Christopher Robin, Robin Dean Salmon has traveled quite an arc to end up as Americana troubadour. He`s even cooled his heels in the alt. country creek having recorded a couple of records as Jack West. But Gasoline marks a turning point for this South African born/Texas raised songsmith. Citing Rodney Crowell`s Houston Kid as a pivotal influence and eye opener, Salmon set to work on developing songs equally rich with the "honesty of the human condition." He must have struck a nerve as he`s managed to get Crowell himself to sing back-up vocals on the breezy and hopeful "Maybe I Do", which also includes vocalist Carmella Ramsey, who has worked with not only Crowell, but Patty Loveless, Maura O`Connell, and many others. Gasoline was recorded in East Nashville with some of the area`s most highly esteemed musicians. And guests, among others, include such notables as guitarist Kenny Vaughn, fiddler Stuart Duncan, and Al Perkins, who cant seem to add enough pedal-steel, much to the records advantage. -- Robinson, Miles Of Music   ROBIN DEAN SALMON - GASOLINE- ENIGMA REVUE ROBIN DEAN SALMON'S GASOLINE has all the parts to a classic Texas style-country music. Smooth harmonies, pedal steel and mandolin are certainly key elements to making a  good dusty Texas record. But has this record been made one too many times? The production is loose and live. Thank goodness it didn’t get over-tweaked as a lot of music in this genre is easy to over do when mixing. Big volume swells sound great, especially on “Plane, Train” where a violin pushes the song wildly. Carmella Ramsey completes the story singing lush backup ala Linda Ronstadt. Any description of Texas or the American southwest would not be complete without that shadowy small town that is more than a metaphor for the end of the line, but also serves as home. ROBIN DEAN SALMON'S real strength is his relationship with these places. He might sing about a lost love or a broken car, but the real story is the town wrapped around it. Rodney Crowell appears on ‘Maybe I Do’ and he certainly puts his signature tone on the track. The single might have been my third pick for release after the swinging “When You Have It All”, and “Plane Train” songs that lean on the beat a bit more than the others. Even though Robin Dean Salmon’s vision of Texas is similar to his contemporaries he has his own story to tell. A sweeping heartbroken record that has been made many times and will made many times to come. This is certainly a Texas record and a record that strengthens that genre.  PRESS AND HIGHLIGHTS I WAS ABLE TO DIG UP  Robin Salmon has always worn a few hats. As owner/operator of FMG Music Studio and singer/songwriter/ frontman for rock band Christopher Robin, he juggled his duties daily. The entrepreneur altered his wardrobe considerably last year when he and his band slipped into 10-gallon cowboy headgear as they shifted to the Jack West moniker. It was more than just a fashionable change of threads; this was a visual indication Salmon was abandoning the alt-pop world for a rootsy honky-tonk approach. Of course, it wasn't as if Christopher Robin -- which he started in 1997 -- was exactly burning up the charts. But by the middle of 2000, their complex tunes just didn't inspire Salmon any more. "I stopped having as much fun playing alternative pop. My philosophy has always been to follow my heart. I saw Mike Ness and for the first time since the mid-'80s in CBGB's I felt this rush of raw power." Last year, Salmon, whose family moved from South Africa to the largest ranch in America when he was 12, began writing tunes in a stripped-down country style. It was an abrupt departure from the full-bodied (some say bloated) technique to which he was accustomed. Robin's band did some low-key shows and were amazed at the energy and the response for the new/old sound. As for the name, Salmon says, "We needed something strong like Clint Eastwood or John Wayne." The band's recently released 13-track debut, Gunslinger, fits comfortably into the current crop of alt-country traditionalists. Salmon finds the strict parameters of the simple three- or four-chord C&W songwriting format an enjoyable challenge. "With the alternative stuff, there were no limits. I wanted to take the tunes back to where every song you write could be torn down to a guy with an acoustic guitar sitting on a front porch." -Hal Horowitz Jack West is a rollicking honky-tonk ensemble with 10-gallon hats on their heads and enough rockin' thunder under their belts to scare Hank Jr. himself straight out of the arena. -Gregory Nicoll "GUNSLINGER fits comfortably into the current crop of alt-country traditionalists."- Hal Horowitz - " Robin Salmon returns with Suicide Alley a milder, more nuanced, but no less tuneful take on Jack West's  Old 97's style C&W."-Roni Sarig-creative loafing "This CD is worth checking out. Not only do you get 16 songs for the buck, but you get variety � the band sounds like what might happen if Lou Reed married Metallica on the Jersey Shore, with U2 for godparents. On each song, you can actually believe this band - their energy and dedication fly right off the disc. Two particular standouts are "Run" and " whisper ", both ballads. " Run " mixes piano, acoustic guitar and harmonica in a way that stirs up the same depth as Neil Young�s classic Harvest album, and " Whisper " sounds primed to put a dent in VH1's rotation. The CD jumps around from alternative to pop to solid rock, and although the band may be called Christopher Robin, there's no " Pooh "on here. These guys rock and their CD is a keeper.� -Karen Lee - southeast performer- SEE NO EVIL PRESS Memorable melodies and a driving beat.  - Ira Robbins- Rolling Stone Straight ahead rockers have a potential  drawing card in vocalist Robin Salmon, who counts Jim Morrison and U2's Bono among  his apparant influences but still cuts it as a distinctive front man. - Billboard - See No Evil secrete an intense integrity and emotion that can only be compared to the aura that surrounds U2. Robin has the pressence and makings of a cult hero with a message. - Details - No gimmicks, the sort of music you can listen to for extended periods of time. The songs are polished, the lyrics intelligent but not pretentious. - Karen Woods - Cash Box - See No Evil is a band with something to say and a lot worth listening to. Lead singer, songwriter Robin Salmon writes songs leagues more interesting than anything Bon Jovi could come up with on their most pensive day - Gwen Holt - Illinois Entertainer - Aggresive, razor sharp inspired songs that relate to love, fate, and being free and the desperation of reality. - Doug Gill - Maryland Musician - Salmon's songs address, in broad terms, some of life's misfortunes bringing them to light while relaying the hopeful message that they can be overcome. - Michelle Stewert - Muse - Deeply rooted in the sound and sensibility of such seminal bands of the late 70's like Television. Being a gutsy, rough-edged, post 70's new wave punker suits See No Evil's honcho Salmon best. - Brad Belfour - Rockpool -