Keith Robinson is a drummer, engineer, and producer living in Brooklyn, New York. He has performed on Grammy nominated, Blues Music Award winning, CMT Top 20 achieving, and BangerTV Album of the Year, recordings. He has recorded for labels such as Columbia, Dualtone, Metal Blade and Alligator. He has played football stadiums, basketball arenas, concert halls, clubs and coffee houses; Folk Festivals, Jazz Festivals and Swedish Metal Festivals. His performances have been streamed over 60 million times on Spotify.
Deciding to forgo a career as a symphonic percussionist, Keith loaded his drum set and moved to Austin,TX the day after completing a Bachelors of Music degree in Percussion Performance from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. Wanting to make a living playing drums, Keith bounced around the “Live Music Capital of the World” playing any and all types of gigs, before catching the ear of blues pianist, Marcia Ball in 1998.
In his tenure with Ball, Keith toured America from Alaska to Florida and all stops in between. He provided drum tracks on two albums which garnered critical praise: “Presumed Innocent,” which won the W.C. Handy Award (now Blues Music Award) for Blues Album of the Year in 2002, and “So Many Rivers,” which received both a Grammy nomination in 2004 for Best Contemporary Blues, and the W. C. Handy Award for the same category. Notable gigs included the main stage at Jazz Fest in New Orleans, and touring with John Fogerty and Aaron Neville.
Moving from the Blues world to the Country world, Keith accepted an invitation to play with now legendary Texas singer/songwriter, Charlie Robison, completing a lineup in what most consider to be the golden era of the band. The band hit the road hard, and in addition to sold out headlining shows, toured with the biggest acts of the early 2000’s (Brooks and Dunn, Travis Tritt, Dwight Yoakum, Big and Rich) and made television appearances on Austin City Limits, “Late Show” with Craig Kilborn, and Nashville Star among others. A hit single ensued with “El Cerrito Place,” which climbed to Number 2 on the CMT Top Twenty Countdown. Concert highlights included a sold out Cotton Bowl show with The Dixie Chicks in 2002, and a CMT televised appearance on The Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman.
When Keith decided his time on Robison’s tour bus had come to an end, he and family picked up and moved to New York City. Keith fell immediately into theater work, occupying the drum seat with the Drama Desk nominated, Off Broadway cult-classic “Lizzie", and spent time in Cape Cod with a regional production of the Broadway hit, “Passing Strange.”
Since his later days with Charlie Robison, Keith had been putting together a home studio, where he provided drum tracks and produced albums for other artists. This studio work became seminal in New York. Keith provided and sent drum tracks to artists all over America and the UK. Notable releases from his studio include Silverteeth’s “Burning Planet” (Top 30 tracks to Come Out Of Providence in the 2010’s- drums and mix), Sarah Borges’ track “Pretty Christine” which appears on her latest album Together Alone (climbed to number one on the Roots Music Chart- drum track), and “Blood From A Stone” from the Greg Humphreys Electric Trio which made it’s way into an episode of HBO’s Outer Banks and hit half a million plays on Spotify (drums and mix).
More recently, Keith joined ranks with proto metal act Tanith and inked a deal with Metal Blade Records. The debut 100% analog recording was honored by receiving a BangerTV album of the year nod and put the band on the road in America, the UK, and Europe, including a slot in the Hammer Of Doom festival in Würzburg, Germany.
In addition to music, Keith has also mixed two documentary films, “The Man Card” (2019), and “The Devil Put the Coal in the Ground” (2022) which both recieved critical praise and were multi award winning, including “Best of” at film festivals around the world.
Music, however, will always come first. Keith has been fortunate to be on sessions along with some of the worlds greatest musicians: Charlie Sexton (David Bowie/ Bob Dylan), David Grissom (Nashville/Austin Session Ace), Matt Katz Bohen (Blondie), Mark Younger Smith (Billy Idol), Stephen Bruton (Delbert McClinton/Bonnie Raitt), Andee Blacksugar (Blondie/Peter Murphy/KMFDM), Lloyd Maines (Grammy winning Producer), Keith Christopher (Lynyrd Skynyrd).
He be found playing around NYC with Hugh Pool (New York Blues Hall of Fame member), Greg Humphreys Electric Trio (Rock and Soul), Lorraine Leckie and Her Demons (Folk Rock Noir), Empire Of Light (Americana Rock), Butch Phelps and the Elevaters (Country Jam), and Emily Frembgen (Country).
Need drum tracks for your next record? Need a drummer for your session? Looking to play live around NYC? Keith is open to all possibilities…contact him!