www.magnoliadrive.com/
Playing Since: 1981
Experience Level: Purty Good
Interests:
[Teaching] [Jamming] [Socializing] [Helping]
Occupation: Financial Advisor
Gender: Male
Age: 62
My Instruments:
1932 Gibson TB-3 conversion (25-19) with Huber HR-30 Ring & "Crowe" pattern neck built by Gary Price. 1964 Epiphone EB-88 (acquired from Ron Stewart). Late 1930's Gibson TB-11 converted by Steve Huber with Frank Neat neck and a Huber Vintage tone ring. 1976 Gibson RB-250. I also own and play a 1980 Martin D-28.
Favorite Bands/Musicians:
Earl Scruggs, JD Crowe, Ron Stewart, Terry Baucom, Steve Dilling,, Scott Vestal, Sonny Osborne, Kenny Ingram, Robby Boone, Joe Mullins. I love Bluegrass but I also like real Country music and the Southern Gospel of the 50's and 60's.
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Profile Info:
Visible to: Public
Created 6/21/2006
Last Visit 7/16/2024
Don Robinson has been a part of the Southeast music scene for over 40 years. Growing up in Sandersville, Mississippi, his first musical interest was Southern Gospel music. He learned to sing harmony in church and by listening to the sounds of the great old groups such as the Stamps Quartet and the Blackwood Brothers. He also learned to play piano being influenced by the stylings of Floyd Cramer and Jerry Lee Lewis. He listened intently to the country music of the 50's and 60's. George Jones, Buck Owens, Connie Smith, and Ronnie Milsap all had great influence on his vocal style.
Don performed on many regional country music shows such as the Mid-South Hayride and the Jimmie Rodgers Festival in Meridian, MS. In 1981, while playing piano for a family gospel group The Abercrombies, Don became increasingly interested in Bluegrass music. Always a fan of Flatt & Scruggs, he began playing the banjo. In 1983, he helped form the regionally-famous band Sweet Dixie, a group whose music is still talked about fondly by fans to this day! In 1988, Don sang briefly with the Magnolia Boys Quartet of Jones Co. Mississippi taking him back to his musical roots in Southern Gospel music. After a short reprisal of Sweet Dixe in 1989, Don went to work playing banjo for the Crain Brothers, a group from Florida who played the Grand Ole Opry in the 60's. He then joined Harold & Ovaline Andrews and Up the Creek in 1990. This gig lasted for almost 5 years taking Don to the Midwest and all over the Southeast!
In 1995, Don was asked to play bass in the Lickety Split band of Birmingham, Alabama. This group competed at the SPBGMA Fan's Choice Championship in Nashville, TN and was very well received. Lickety Split also was chosen to represent the Southern region of the U.S. to compete at the IBMA Pizza Hut Bluegrass Band Championship in Owensboro, Kentucky and finished in the top five. In 1996, Don along with guitarist Ray Benson left Lickety Split and formed Common Ground taking their music in a different direction. This group played festivals and other events in Mississippi and Alabama through 2000. After almost 20 years of non-stop traveling and performing, Don chose to take a sabbatical. He performed occasionally with Ray and Gathel Runnels (a bandmate in Sweet Dixie), but laid low becoming an avid bass angler during most of 2001-2004. Don and Jason Boone had talked for several years about putting together a group and that idea became a reality in late 2004. As a member of The Jason Boone Band, Don played banjo, guitar occasionally, and sang lead and harmony vocals. He also handled the majority of the emcee duties.
Don writes simple songs about complex things: love, family, home, heaven. Phrases turn, emotions connect, melodies soar. You sing along even though you've never heard the tune before. Don writes from a perspective of distances, of interludes between lovers and lives and the roads that lead from small towns to big cities. His songs have been recorded by Lickety Split, The Misty Valley Boys of Virginia, and the Southern Gentlemen of Alabama. He contributed to the JBB repretoire with a few of his original songs, one of which, "This Same Jesus" recorded on the group's first self-titled CD project, has received some national radio airplay. Don contributed 5 songs to the JBB's second project, "I Hear Mississippi Calling" in 2008 which received critical acclaim. Most recently, Don's composition, "Sunday Morning Without You" was included on the 2012 CD release by Special Consensus, "Scratch Gravel Yard", an album receiving much acclaim, including a nomination from the IBMA for "Recorded Event of the Year" and a Grammy nomination.
In August 2010, Don helped form Magnolia Drive, a group of long-time friends who are currently turning some heads in the BG world. Magnolia Drive has recently released is first self-produced, self-titled CD. The group recently performed at Bean Blossom's Uncle Pen Days and in June 2012 was invited to return to the 46th Annual Bill Monroe Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival.
Don lives near Hattiesburg, MS with his wife Karen. They have two grown children, Chase, a son is married to Ashton and lives in Mobile, AL, with their first grandbaby, Charlotte, born 11-20-14 and Chandler, their daughter, who also lives in Mobile, Al and works for a software company . Don is a Chartered Life Underwriter(CLU) and a financial advisor in the insurance and investment business where he has enjoyed much success over the last 25 years.
