Texas-raised songwriter Chris Robeson is Austin-based, a home base from which he will release his debut album Euphoriphobia on July 19th, 2024. Robeson spent many years writing over 1000 songs, and gathering and recording unreleased records before making the decision to give his music a public release. His first single from the record has been “Home in the Rain.”
Some of Robeson’s biggest influences are John Prine, Ween, Roger Miller, Tom Waits, Modest Mouse, Townes Van Zandt, John Lennon, and Kris Kristofferson, and like many of them, he prefers creating stories replete with colorful characters and voices.
Wildfire Music + News is very pleased to premier Robeson’s new track from Euphoriphobia, titled “Fistful of Cash”, today. The song will be released on Friday, June 21st, 2024.
“Fistful of Cash” is a reflective, musing-filled song about quite serious ideas, but they are presented in such a broken-in way as to have shed all pretension. But these are serious ideas that most of us are bound to come across in our lives sooner or later, such as the value we put on non-material things in life, how much we rely on financial status to define our identities, and whether the lives we build are built to endure. Robeson doesn’t go far into defining what “good times” might be for the audience, leaving them to imagine that holy grail, but he does suggest the depth of loss that’s possible when life’s poker game doesn’t go one’s way.
Sonically, the song is very idiosyncratic in structure, vocal delivery, and even in the use of sound effects. It sounds theatrical, in its own way, but never veers away from the conversational, and only drives home urgency through the swelling choral feeling of its conclusion. The chiming, percussive feeling of the song contributes to the mood of undercutting status quo values, those of placing money over happiness, and material success over meaningful relationships. By aligning the tone of the song with a warning against relying on a “fistful of cash”, the earthy, eclectic approach to sound feels that much more welcoming and earnest. It invites the audience to take a chance and place a bigger bet on finding their own values.
Chris Robeson shares:
A more hopeful sounding song from a different character encouraging me to live in the moment and stop worrying about finding material success or fame, since the world is fucked anyway. Slightly tongue-in-cheek, but sincere, it is one of the most upbeat songs on the record.
The song “Fistful of Cash” was written by Chris Robeson and Gabriel Rhodes and features Chris Robeson on lead vocals, background vocals, and acoustic guitar, Gabriel Rhodes on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, sitar, keyboards, and background vocals, Matt Slagle on bass guitar, John Chipman on drums, percussion, foley, and background vocals, and Shawn Pander and Guy Forsyth on background vocals.
Though Robeson has been a prolific songwriter, his creative journey has been interrupted at times by severe depression and health issues. His commitment to music, however, became an enduring through-line in his life and his songwriting contains a hint of humor that’s often tongue-in-cheek. That enables him to take on heavier themes like isolation, anxiety, and substance abuse, and offer solace to others who can relate in an authentic way.
Robeson also collaborated with Producer Gabriel Rhodes on the album Euphoriphobia, which addresses “the drug of happiness” with songs of “introspection and loss.” Robeson sees the album as a collection of “self-help songs” as well as tributes written to loved ones lost to suicide during the pandemic. However, the songs are far from recipes for easy answers. Rather, they are testaments to honest experiences and emotions.
