Charles Fitzgerald Robison is a retired American country music singer/songwriter. His brother, Bruce Robison, and his sister, Robyn Ludwick, are also singer/songwriters.
Career
After an knee injury at Southwest Texas State University ended a potential football career, Charlie Robison came to Austin, Texas in the late 1980s and had stints in the bands Chaparral, Millionaire Playboys, and Two Hoots and a Holler. He went solo with his album "Bandera" in 1996. He subsequently signed with Sony and released "Life of the Party" on Sony's subsidiary Lucky Dog Records. The album gave him three of his biggest hits including "My Hometown." His next release was a live disc called "Unleashed Live," which is credited to Charlie, brother Bruce, and Jack Ingram. He then signed with Columbia Records for "Step Right Up" and another live album. In 2003, Robison was a judge on the first season of the TV singing competition Nashville Star. Unhappy with the expectations & limitations of being a Nashville country artist, he moved to a smaller independent label, Dualtone, for "Good Times" in 2004, followed by extensive touring and newfound control over his career. Accordingly, his sound began to evolve away from mainstream/Nashville country and toward more Southern & hard rock influences. Five years after the release of Good Times, Robison released Beautiful Day on June 23, 2009 on Dualtone. This is the first CD he has self-produced. Both albums feature several songs written by Nashville singer/songwriter Keith Gattis. His song "Good Times" was featured in the credits of HBO's original seriesTrue Blood in the first season's third episode. In 2009 he embarked on an East Coast tour with stops in Little Rock, Nashville, Atlanta, Raleigh, New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis, Iowa City, and Memphis to promote "Beautiful Day." Since then he has played primarily in Texas, with occasional shows in Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. He is known for playing classic rock covers during his live shows. Some of these include: "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "Highway to Hell", "Call me the Breeze", "Rocket Man", and several Rolling Stones songs, including "Dead Flowers" and "Honky Tonk Women." He also plays several songs associated with Willie Nelson, including "Whiskey River" and "Stay all Night." His live band includes Mark Tokach, Abe Combest, Zeke Benenate J.C. Burt and Chris Valdez. Prior to Beautiful Day, his band was known as The Enablers and included Keith Robinson, Scott Esbeck and Travis Woodard. Other notable members have included Kim Deschamps, Kevin Carroll, Chris Grady, Louis Landry, and Kris Brown. His recordings have also featured special guests Lloyd Maines, Rich Brotherton, Charlie Sexton, and Natalie Maines. In the fall of 2014, Charlie Robison opened Alamo Icehouse in San Antonio, Texas, with former MLB player, Brooks Kieschnick. On September 24, 2018, Robison announced that his singing career was over, due to voice surgery that could not correct an unannounced medical issue.
Personal life
Robison married Emily Erwin of The Dixie Chicks at the Cibolo Creek Ranch in May 1999. They have three children together: Charles Augustus, called "Gus", born November 11, 2002, and twins Julianna Tex and Henry Benjamin, born on April 14, 2005. Charlie and Emily divorced on August 6, 2008, after nine years of marriage.
Discography
Albums
Singles
Music videos
Tributes
He appeared on Kindred Spirits: A tribute to Johnny Cash, singing "Don't Take Your Guns to Town". In 2006, Charlie Robison performed "Wildman from Borneo" on the Kinky Friedman tribute "Why the hell not..." The songs of Kinky Friedman.
