TWANGORAMA PRESS

Robinson first met deGruy through a friend in the mid-70s, but again nothing formal transpired for years.xxClements might best be described as the Kevin Bacon (of the “six degrees of separation” movie trivia game fame) of guitarists – you can connect him to virtually any musician who’s been through New Orleans over the last four decades.xx“He’s really been in the trenches his entire life as a musician. He’s done any gig you can imagine,” said Robinson. “Cranston has played every style with everybody. There’s hardly anything that you can throw at him that he wouldn’t be able to do something good with. He’s a real good reader. He can conceptualize just about anything.”xxClements says of Robinson, “I greatly admire his total fearlessness,” noting that he never seems to back down from any musical endeavor that he feels has merit artistically. Clements also recalled with amazement a performance of Woodenhead where Robinson broke a D-string on his guitar and completely re-conceptualized all of the guitar chord structures mid-song without missing a beat. Anyone who has seen or heard Phil deGruy knows how difficult it is to articulate his exceptional talents. “He has three brains. He’s unbelievable. He has a lot of really hotshot guitar players singing his praises all the time,” said Robinson. “He’s got an amazing ear. He’s just got a real massive musical mind.”Adding the Woodenhead members gave the band the freedom of knowing the rhythm section would come together seamlessly, allowing the band to focus on the intricacies of coordinating multiple guitars. “Paul and Mark came to Woodenhead when they were relatively young. They can do anything after the boot camp of being in Woodenhead with really super complicated music. They can both read and conceptualize really complicated stuff,”
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