Robin Syler
Circa 1970s
Circa 1990s
Circa 2004
Photos Courtesy of Richard Chalk
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Dear Folks,
If ever there was a case of a 'Criminally Unrecognized/Unrewarded Artist' (once again Europeans & Japanese fans knew more about him than North Americans...) it was the totally mind-boggling talents and IMAGINATION of Robin Syler..we can be thankful that Richard Chalk of Topcat Records and Robin's good buddy Wes Race, made sure that the World had a bit of Robin's Magic to remember him by. Robin knew he was The Greatest(that's NO exageration)..it bothered him immensely that he lived in a Society that doesn't recognize Real Talent. Like virtually all True Genius artists, Robin lived in a 'different place' than the rest of us and outside of creating his Magic Music, life was often painful, incomprehensible or just boring. Robin Needed-to-be creating his Joyful Magic for people and when his opportunities for doing that dwindled, so did his Reasons for Living. Like always, when we lose someone like Robin, it brings home the reality that we are 'Our- Brother's- Keepers' and yes, maybe we could've all done a little bit more for a guy who gave us back so much more in return...inside the cover of Robin's CD "Tricked Out" there is a group photo of the Legendary Texas Blues band, Krackerjack, circa 1971, and standing next to luminary bandmates Uncle John Turner and Tommy Shannon, is a serious-looking Robin Syler. On Robin's left is his young 'pupil', Stevie Ray Vaughan...... with much sadness,
Andy Grigg
Real Blues Magazine
From Richard Chalk, TopCat Records
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 11:04:06 -0600
Subject: Re: Robin Syler R.I.P.
It is with a heavy heart that I relay the sad news of the untimely passing of Robin Syler.
Robin died at his home in Ft. Worth, Texas last week.
Funeral services will be held tomorrow, Thursday December 15th at Sparkman Hillcrest Funeral Home in Dallas at 2:00pm.
Robin was widely regarded as one of the absolute best, most unique, gifted guitarist in Texas, if not the entire world. Most all guitarists in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, professional and amateur alike, would flock to his shows to experience this Master at work and try to steal a lick or two. It was common to see all the guitarists in attendance transfixed by his stunning prowess, all sitting there in amazement with their jaws dropped, completely in awe.
Robin will be sorely missed. The Blues world, and especially Blues musicians, supporters and enthusiasts in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, have lost one of the greatest, most unique talents to have ever walked the planet. . God bless you Robin.
Richard Chalk
TopCat Records
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Below is an article from the Ft. Worth Weekly last year that recounts some of Robin's career highlights, achievements and which makes a respectable attempt to describe Robin's unique musical style and sense of humor.
Featured Music: Wednesday April 7, 2004
Paint It Blue Robin Syler filters musical sources through a pentatonic prism and arrives at originality.By KEN SHIMAMOTO
Robin Syler is a madman. Or at least he plays like one.The Texas axe-man’s blues cred is impeccable: As a youth, he filled his bucket from the same deep well of Delta water as Stevie Ray Vaughan and even went toe-to-toe with SRV when both played together in the rock outfit Krackerjack. After a spell on the West Coast and roadwork with archetypal hippie blues-rockers Canned Heat, Syler logged time in the Millionaires with Doyle Bramhall in the late ’70s, and, in ’94, he appeared on Bramhall’s epochal Bird Nest on the Ground CD. Syler’s incendiary performances at the Keys Lounge on Westcreek have made believers out of many blues skeptics.
More to the point, he’s just released a new full-length, Tricked Out (on Dallas-based Topcat Records), on which his left-of-center ideas and delivery clearly set him apart from the pack of local bluesicians. See, blues guitarists tend to come in two flavors: respectfully folkloric or flashy and showy. At the end of the day, though, it’s impossible for these musicians to play either their egos or their huge and tasteful record collections for audiences. Approaches that are overly concerned with idiomatic correctness, like folkloric stylings, even beg the question: “Why do I, as a blues fan, need to listen to, say, Eric Clapton while Buddy Guy is still drawing breath?” Conversely, an axe-slinger who — on stage or in the studio — always feels compelled to play every lick he knows (and it’s always a he, Sue Foley and Susan Tedeschi notwithstanding) winds up coming across like so much sound and fury, signifying nothing.As a player, Syler is something Entirely Other.
His style is purely informed by a few muses: the wilder side of blues tradition, as personified by the likes of Guitar Slim and Johnny “Guitar” Watson, players who, when playing, sounded as if they were really mad at someone (to use Frank Zappa’s words); virtuosi like surf daddy Dick Dale and Memphis wunderkind Travis Wammack, grandstanding exhibitionists of the early ’60s instrumental variety; and the seat-of-the-pants, psychedelic-era Jeff Beck during his fuzztone-blaring, feedback-belching Yardbirds daze. Syler uses a wide, almost out-of-control vibrato, highly idiosyncratic note choices, and unusual arrangement and production touches to create an atmosphere of disorientation. The key changes in between verses on Tricked Out’s cover of the Dixie Cups’ venerable “Iko Iko” are sinisterly crafty. The bagpipe band that appears out of nowhere to march, Charles Ives-like, through a cover of Wammack’s “Scratchy” on Syler’s debut CD, Bust Out, is equally inventive. Overall, his fretboard fireworks are the auditory equivalent of the quiet guy at the end of the bar with the crazed look in his eye who very well might do anything. There’s a sense of unpredictability and an undertone of danger in nearly everything Syler does, always offset by his off-kilter humor.
Syler’s got a voice, too. His vocals have neither the bellowing bluster nor the sense of cool repose that mark most blues singers’ delivery. Instead, his voice is thin and reedy, and you get the impression that he couldn’t care less. He’s also a great lyricist, capable of penning lines like the so-cheesy-it’s-cool double entendre “My love is like dynamite / Don’t you play with my fuse / If you play with my fuse / I’ll explode all over you” (on Bust Out’s “Dynomite Nitro”) or “I like sleepy Fort Worth / I like leaving this Earth / I like life without pain / And a woman that’s sane” (from that debut disc’s “Dux,” a song that features a duck call solo).
On Tricked Out, the only two songs that Syler actually penned are instrumental, but they’re just as emblematic of his individuality — maybe even more so. “Shot Time” is a Hendrixian funk groove over which local spoken word poet Wes Race intones a blues hound’s manifesto in his midwestern hipster style: “I ain’t no bigot / Can you dig it? / I love my life / Just the way I live it / If you can’t get next to that / Oh well, fuck you.” “Surf Puppy” is a full-blown surf instrumental, with Syler handling keyboards as well as guitar. The piece occupies a space somewhere between the Tornados’ “Telstar” and the theme from The Munsters.
Syler’s choice of tunes to cover reveals an artist fascinated by myriad inspirations. The proceedings open with the 13th Floor Elevators’ “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” and, through this hauntingly psycho interpretation, Syler can certainly claim kinship with vaunted Texas weirdos like the Elevators’ Roky Erickson and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Syler’s blistering take on “Shakin’ All Over,” from early-’60s Brit rocker Johnny Kidd, makes mincemeat of the Who’s version from Live At Leeds. And he even tips his hat to ’70s-era Dallasites the Werewolves — Rolling Stones acolytes who were briefly managed by Stones svengali Andrew Loog Oldham and had a record deal with RCA — with a Syler-ized treatment of their 1978 near-hit “Hollywood Millionaire.”
Of course, the inevitable guest musicians make appearances. Ex-Werewolves drummer Bobby Baranowski kicks the traps on a couple of tracks, but most of the stickwork is by the solid journeyman Kevin Schermerhorn. Syler himself plays bass on most of the selections, with fellow eccentric Homer Henderson providing the solid one-note thump on two songs. Jovial zydeco daddy Johnny Mack actually sounds pissed off on Don Nix’s “Back to Iuka” and, with Syler’s regular trio of himself, bassist Eric Matthew, and drummer Mark Wilson, adds just the right touch to the hot six-song set, recorded live at the Keys, that closes the disc; he even plays rub-board and sings his signature song “Sugar Bee.”
These days, Robin Syler makes his living teaching guitar and bass at Brook Mays Music in Cityview. He advertises his services with lurid pink flyers that would be more appropriate for a punk show than a guitar tutor. But anyone searching for a lesson in how to remain resolutely Your Own Guy while playing classic forms, and aficionados of twisted kicks in general, need look no further than Tricked Out.
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