Charlie Robison

After spending the beginning of his career on the fringes of Nashville, playing the game well enough to land himself a gig on the 2003 reality show competition Nashville Star -- he served on the season that introduced Miranda Lambert to the world -- but not well enough to get a big hit, Charlie Robison headed home to his native Texas. Back in the Lone Star State, he toughened up his sound, then set out releasing a pair of acclaimed albums on Dualtone Records in the 2000s. He kept gigging, interrupted occasionally due to health concerns, until his death in 2023. Charlie Robison was born in Houston and raised on his family's ranch in the town of Bandera, Texas; absorbing the music he heard on the local honky tonk scene, he and his brother Bruce -- later an acclaimed performer in his own right -- were also brought up on artists ranging from Black Sabbath to Gram Parsons to Bruce Springsteen. After discovering the thriving music scene in nearby Austin at age 15, Robison began writing his own material, drawing equal influence from rock and country; stints in the bands Chaparral and Two Hoots & a Holler followed, and he also joined the Millionaire Playboys, an all-star Austin ensemble. After contributing to albums from Alejandro Escovedo and Kelly Willis, Robison made his solo debut in 1995 with Bandera; Life of the Party followed three years later. Teaming up with his younger brother Bruce and fellow Texan Jack Ingram, the trio released the appropriately named Unleashed Live in 2000. Robison made the leap to Columbia Records, releasing Step Right Up in April 2001. Its first single, "I Want You Bad," cracked Billboard's Country Top 40, setting him up for his time as a judge on Nashville Star in 2003. His role on the show coincided with the May 2003 release of his second Columbia Records album, Live. Within a year, Robison departed Columbia for Dualtone, releasing Good Times in 2004. The same label issued Beautiful Day in 2009. He kept gigging, but the last collection of original studio material he released was High Life in 2013. In 2018, Robison lost his ability to sing following a surgical procedure, and he retired from performing, though in 2022 he had recovered sufficiently to book occasional club shows. He had concerts scheduled for 2024 when he died on September 10, 2023, at the age of 59. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi