Premiere: Another feather in Chris Roberts’ hat

Hate When You’re Gone

In March 2020, when Chris Roberts and his band learned that their tour had been cancelled, they pointed the bus toward California’s Joshua Tree and spent three weeks in quarantine/isolation, recording a package of new songs in a studio with state-of-the-art gear. In Roberts’ words, “making rock ’n’ roll/hippie/country magic.”

Growing up in Austin, with an interest in music, but not a calling, Roberts lived in the moment, kicking around a series of jobs, including working the land on his friend’s ranch in the Texas Panhandle. When a mood struck, he dropped everything and moved to Utah to apprentice with a hatmaker, and found he had a knack for it. Forward to 2015, he’d moved to Colorado, having parlayed what he’d learned and opening a second custom hat store back in Austin, with his cohort from his ranch days.

Success with his Aspen Hatter stores allowed the time for fun, and for music. “Once I stopped having to make every hat myself and push everyday on the computer keyboard,” Roberts said, “I was able to sit in the corner and play my guitar. People who stopped in enjoyed what they heard.”

He wrote is first song on a plane from Denver to Aspen, between stores. “I didn’t have my guitar with me, but I could hear it being played,” he recalled. “I thought, Maybe I should try a little harder. I can do this.” And so, he did.

Chris Roberts told Elmore a bit about this track. “‘Hate When You’re Gone’ is a song about how people who we love, when they’re not with us anymore, how big of an impact that can have on our lives. Really it is about some of the special people I’ve had to leave behind and some who have had to leave me. It’s just that way I guess…sort of a heartfelt one here.”

At Joshua Tree, where Chris and his band created eight new songs, from first flickers of life to final mixes. Straddling the worlds of Americana and raw country/Southern rock, they’re solidly written and executed, laced with innovative but irresistible hooks.

Learn more about Chris Roberts HERE