Musicians release new gospel and blues album inspired by their Mississippi River road trip

INTERVIEWER: The Mississippi River is a staple of American music. Songwriters have been influenced by its history, culture, and natural beauty, including our next two guests, Robert Robinson and Brother Timothy Frantzich. Hopped in a car last January and headed south along the Mississippi River looking for inspiration, and they found it.

Robinson is a legendary Minneapolis gospel singer and choir director, and Brother Timothy is a singer-songwriter. They're here to talk about their new album, Mississippi River Songs. Welcome to Minnesota Now, Robert and Timothy.

TIMOTHY FRANTZICH: Thanks so much. I appreciate it.

So this new album called Mississippi River Songs was composed on a musical road trip. Robert, tell me about where the idea came from.

ROBERT ROBINSON: Well, I wish I could tell you that it was my idea, but it wasn't. It was actually Tim's idea. So maybe he could fill you in a little bit more on it. I bought into it, though, but it was kind of his baby. He's the one that kind of conceived of the. Idea so talk about it, Tim.

TIMOTHY FRANTZICH: Well we raised this baby together, Robert, but I will go back a little before. I started really loving the idea of traveling and writing music maybe about a year and a half ago, just, and pondering what that might be like. And then I thought, oh gosh, if I could ever drive down the River and write some songs, that would be really special.

And of course, the excitement comes from not knowing what the heck is going to happen, and a lot of times, to be surprised is what helps to put fuel into our creative tank and to head that way. And so the second thought I had literally was, if I could do this with Robert-- now Robert and I have traveled a little bit together. We went out to New York City about 10 years ago together for Martin Luther King Day, and did some songs there at the Riverside Church.

So we knew each other well enough to travel together, but we hadn't collaborated that much on new material. So I just thought that would be the best thing ever. So that's when I called Robert almost right away, and went over and talked with him about this idea.

INTERVIEWER: So we'd like to hear a little bit of that music here here's a little bit of a song, "The Eagle Says Stay Close to the Source."

[MUSIC - ROBERT ROBINSON & TIMOTHY FRANTZICH, "STAY CLOSE TO THE SOURCE"]

(SINGING) Hmm, eagle says stay close to the source. Eagle says, stay close to the source.

INTERVIEWER: So tell me a little bit more about that song, Brother Timothy.

TIMOTHY FRANTZICH: Well, that was early on. We were in the Driftless region driving down. And we did leave-- well, we were traveling, Robert, weren't we-- exactly a year ago, we were driving South, and we came into that beautiful area where the glaciers haven't touched the land the same way.

So it's really hilly and beautiful and full of eagles. Robert was driving. And I decided to start looking up facts about bald eagles because they were all around us. And I started reading things about how they eat.

And I think I was just rambling over some facts like, well, gosh, they stay close to the source, and da da da and stays close to the source of food. And Robert, there was a pause, and Robert does-- he picked up this sort of meaningful line that the eagles stay close to the source. That's what they say. So that turned into a gospel, a beautiful song, actually, that was so fun to create with Robert.

INTERVIEWER: So this kind of a trip isn't easy for people to do. How long have you guys known each other? How do you get along? How do you collaborate? What made you sure you could stand each other long enough to make this trip?

[LAUGHTER]

ROBERT ROBINSON: This is funny. I think Tim is probably one of the easiest persons to get along with. He's very accommodating, which, God knows, he needs to be, dealing with me.

So it was no problem. We had a good time. If there was a glitch or something didn't go right, we just talked about it, and we made a decision. We kept moving, no upset feelings and attitudes or any of that.

It was really quite a gift, actually quite a gift. I truly enjoyed it. And I have to be completely honest.

When Tim brought me the idea of doing this, it was actually funny because I have arranged a lot of songs in my life. In fact, I do that to almost everything I sing. I arranged it for what I want to do with it.

But I have never really sat down and written many songs at all. Period. So I told him this-- I made my confession upfront and told him, I probably won't be any help to you.

[LAUGHTER]

But he had faith in me. He said, you probably are more of a writer than you give yourself credit for. And so when we were driving, and different things and ideas would come to my mind, I would throw him a line.

And Tim has this poetic way of taking something and just almost making it sound like it just came out of a beautiful poem book. And so that's how we would do it because I, of course, me with my lack of poetic background, I couldn't make it sound beautiful. I could just tell him, boy, those eagles are really great. They really got some great sense about them because they never fly far from the source. They always stay close to the source.

And so he would take that line. And then he would say something really beautiful. And then he would write that down.

If he was driving, I would write it down. And likewise, if I was driving, he would write it down. And that's kind of how a lot of stuff got created.

INTERVIEWER: Tag team driving and songwriting put together.

TIMOTHY FRANTZICH: That's right.

INTERVIEWER: Yeah.

TIMOTHY FRANTZICH: [LAUGHS] We even had a little guitar in the front passenger seat there so I could strum along. And it was really nice. It was.

INTERVIEWER: So let's listen to another song from the album.

TIMOTHY FRANTZICH: Right.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

(SINGING) This is the old way, the every before way. Follow the edge of this great river. Let go off the highway that don't have no time with and follow the edge--

INTERVIEWER: So tell us a little bit about this song. Where were you when you came up with it? What inspired it?

TIMOTHY FRANTZICH: Well, this is early on again. And it was ringing in my ears. You know that-- well, part of the journey was the river and also, as Robert touched on, and you asked about the collaboration.

And so I got up early on about the second morning. And I was really enjoying our conversation and had written down a few of the things that we had talked about. But I knew the onus was on me there to try to really write it, the beginnings of a song.

So I laced up my shoes tight and got my cup of coffee about 6:00 AM and sat down, and worked that one out for the most part. But then Robert, he popped his head in the door and said something like, well, Tim, the two words that are on my heart this morning, "majestic" and "unstoppable." He was talking about the river. And I thought, well, jeez, those are the best words of the song.

So that became the name of the song. And that really started to tumble in our collaboration. By the end of the river, we were flowing in our songwriting. And so that part was really, really special to discover.

INTERVIEWER: And Robert, what was your part of it?

ROBERT ROBINSON: Well, like Tim said, I guess I got inspired by some of the things that he would say, and then they would inspire things inside me based on-- looking at the same things he was looking at. I would see something, and I guess in my mind, I felt the freedom to just say what I felt. And we were able to take-- he was able to take what I was saying and write it into these songs.

And then we would get together later in the day because we usually would pull into some sort of hotel or motel. And we would give ourselves a couple of hours or an hour or so to relax and get ourselves together. And then we would meet usually in Tim's room because he had a setup.

And we would start looking at words that he had written--

INTERVIEWER: That's a great way to start. I got to stop you there. We're coming to the end of the show.

That's Robert Robinson and Brother Timothy Frantzich. They have a new album out, Mississippi River Songs. They'll be performing songs from the album at the Dakota in downtown Minneapolis on Saturday, January 14. You can buy tickets at dakotacook.com/events.