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Chris Robinson Brotherhood brings ‘farm-to-table’ music to the Fillmore

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The Chris Robinson Brotherhood plays the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco Thurs. through Sat., Dec. 8-10, 2016, �in support of their new release "If You Lived Here, You Would Be Home By Now."
The Chris Robinson Brotherhood plays the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco Thurs. through Sat., Dec. 8-10, 2016, �in support of their new release "If You Lived Here, You Would Be Home By Now."Jon Cornick

Singer-songwriter Chris Robinson speaks with the informed hindsight of a man who has seen it all. Emerging in the late ’80s as the lead singer of the Black Crowes, he walked the bumpy road of rock stardom for over two decades before taking a leap of faith and stepping away from the L.A. rat race and the mainstream music industry to move to the Bay Area.

Robinson remembers his L.A. years fondly, but in the end he felt curtailed creatively by the constraints and business considerations inherent in a major-label act.

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He founded the Chris Robinson Brotherhood in 2011 and hasn’t looked back, releasing six albums and performing well over 100 dates per year since, with the exception of a brief hiatus in 2013. Now Robinson brings his musical fraternity home to the Fillmore in San Francisco on Thursday, Dec. 8, to begin a three-night stand.

The veteran band of flannel-and-jeans-clad graybeards features Neal Casal on guitar, Adam MacDougall on keys, Jeff Hill on bass and Tony Leone on drums. These guys are what musicians call “tone dogs,” utilizing vintage gear and approaching the music with a serve-the-song, less-is-more sensibility that favors tone, touch and taste over technical flamboyance.

Robinson describes the business model of the band as “farm-to-table,” not so much in terms of miles traveled, but rather in the sense that the Brotherhood endeavors to deliver organic, quality music in its purest form direct from the artist to the listener, with a grassroots management structure made up mostly of family and friends.

While he acknowledges that it’s challenging to make a viable living as the leader of an independent touring band and that he has had to make some lifestyle changes amid the transition, Robinson is savoring Bay Area life with no regrets, simply saying that “you can’t put a price on joy.”

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Robinson completed his Los Angeles emancipation in 2015, relocating to Greenbrae in Marin County with his wife and two children. Whether riding horses in West Marin, jamming at Iron Springs Brewery in Fairfax, or surfing in Bolinas, Northern California living is agreeing with the Robinsons.

“Everywhere you go, everyone’s so nice. I lived in L.A. for 14 years, and I never ran into friends the way I do in Marin — at the DMV, at the beach, at the muffler shop and, of course, at Good Earth (Fairfax’s independent natural foods market and unofficial cultural center),” he says.

This breadth of experience and newfound freedom are evident on Robinson’s latest release, “If You Lived Here, You Would Be Home By Now,” a five-track companion EP to 2015’s “Anyway You Love, We Know How You Feel.” Both collections were recorded at the uniquely situated Panoramic House recording studio in Stinson Beach, which offers expansive coastal views as well as acoustics colored by historical Bay Area materials, including salvaged wood from San Francisco docks.

“We used to make records in Hollywood in a building with no windows, and now we’re looking out over Stinson Beach with that view and that weather, and everyone was excited and energized. We hadn’t been in the studio in a few years, and we find ourselves in this wonderland of mythical proportions. It’s a big part of the backdrop of the album,” he says. “Panoramic House is such a cool studio — probably my favorite place I’ve ever worked.”

The new material is true to Robinson’s blues and classic rock roots, but the sound has evolved over decades into a broader, more seasoned blend of Americana styles in which the forms and directions of songs are not confined by convention or commerce. This freedom extends to the packaging and prolific release schedule, “If You Lived Here ...” being the Brotherhood’s sixth album in five years.

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“We’re not on the radio, we’re not answering to anyone, we’re not youth- or commercially driven, so the bottom line is we just write songs and play them,” he says. “It would be different if the band was selling millions of records, because a new release would mean something else — there would be different pressure placed on it — but for us it just means that this band is in a creative place and we have the freedom and opportunity to do these unique releases.”

Robinson eagerly anticipates the Fillmore run, hinting at encore surprises and special guests, but mostly sees the show as a chance to delve deep into the catalog. “A three-night run gives us an opportunity to play all the material we’ve been working on all year,” he says, “so for us it’s a blast.”

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The Chris Robinson Brotherhood: 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8; 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Dec. 9-10. $32.50. The Fillmore, 1805 Geary Blvd., S.F. (415) 346-6000. http://thefillmore.com

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