Although Paul cut his teeth in Southern rock with the Outlaws and the Henry Paul Band, Robbins credits him with infusing BlackHawk with a real country music sensibility, back when he and fellow composer, the late Van Stephenson, viewed themselves primarily as pop songwriters. “Van and I were sitting over there in the Eagles/Restless Heart world—musically,” he observes. “But Henry was country. Even with the Outlaws, he was country. You can ever hear traces of bluegrass in his work.”
One of the early acts signed to Arista/Nashville Records, BlackHawk blazed up the charts in 1993 with “Goodbye Says It All.” Their debut album, BlackHawk (1994), yielded four Top 10 hits, including “Every Once In A While” and “That’s Just About Right.” It went on to sell more than 2 million copies. The follow-up collection, Strong Enough (1995), produced their biggest single, “I’m Not Strong Enough To Say No.” That album was certified Platinum—signifying another million sold.
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BlackHawk continued to chart with songs from the albums Love & Gravity (1997), The Sky’s The Limit (1998) and Greatest Hits (2000). The band rolled into the 21st Century on such gems as “Your Own Little Corner Of My Heart” and “I Need You All The Time.” After switching to Columbia Records, they scored again with “Days Of America” and “One Night In New Orleans,” both from Spirit Dancer (2002).
“The songs we write are just testimonies to what’s happening in our lives,” Paul explains. If that’s the case, then they’re evidently living pretty good lives—and they look it. Conditioned by the rigorous physical demands of the stage, Paul and Robbins display an easy athleticism that’s more associated with rock stars than country troubadours.
In country’s increasingly crowded arena, it’s common for artists to take swipes at their competition. But you won’t hear any of that from BlackHawk. They actually admire their peers and know their music well. “There are things going on in Nashville that are really exciting and high-level,” Paul asserts. “A few years back, there was the O Brother, Where Art Thou? record, which was one of the hippest musical collaborations ever. And just think about Nickel Creek’s early records and Alison Krauss’s body of work and Keith Urban’s musicianship. Then there’s the Dixie Chicks—they really raised the bar artistically. When you love music the way we do and great things like this are going on, you aspire to be part of it.”
Following a long physical decline, Stephenson died of cancer in April 2001 at the age of 47. He left a vacancy that was both artistic and emotional. “Van was very, very good,” Paul muses. “He and Dave and I had a real cool thing. We tried a couple of different people after he passed away, but it didn’t work.”
To commemorate their fallen comrade, Paul and Robbins organized the Van Stephenson Memorial Cancer Research Fund, which they continue to support vigorously through special concerts, dinners and the sale of toy bears that carry Stephenson’s likeness.
BlackHawk has bided its time while it took stock of the musical scene and its own resources, but it has never slowed down. “We do our music the old-fashioned way,” says Paul. “We write a song, work it up with the rest of the band, go out on the road and play it and then take the arrangement into the studio and put it on tape. And what we get is a four-, five- or six-minute adventure. It’s not just a verse and a chorus. It’s a musical journey.”