Jazzy, Snazzy Robin Stine: “My Voice Is My Instrument”

By Chris Manson October 5, 2006 Issue

Robin Stine’s voice compels the listener to come a little closer. Her magnificent new album, Daydream, contains one standard—Nature Boy, made famous by Nat “King Cole”—and a dozen Stine compositions that sound like they should be. Stine avoids histrionics but doesn’t favor the hushed tones that confine lesser singers to the background.

I speak to Stine by telephone as she prepares for a busy weekend. There’s the Mobile, Ala. Bayfest on Friday night followed by a fundraiser at Sandestin’s Marlin Grill Saturday. She returns to Fish Out of Water’s jazz brunch Sunday Oct. 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. followed by a RadioLive performance at Baytowne Wharf on Nov. 15. Additional dates, including regular engagements near her Pensacola home, are posted at robinstine.com.

Stine has been performing most of her life “starting in church, doing classical music in high school, and pop music in college,” she says. She attended graduate school in Miami before returning to her first love. Despite growing up in Kansas City, she didn’t take on jazz until 1999. “It’s a real natural style for me. I don’t have to work hard at it. It fits me.”

For the last three years, Stine has lived and worked in Pensacola, where she was voted Jazz Vocalist of the Year in the Independent News music awards. Hometown honors aside, Stine has noticed a difference in the audiences around Destin and Walton County. “You have an international community, more people that enjoy jazz,” she observes. “There’s a strong tourist component who have been exposed to more jazz music.”

Recently, Stine tapped into a new side of her creativity—songwriting. Daydream was written in a nine-month period, right after she decided to start penning original material. She thought, “How am I going to write music? I don’t play an instrument, I write through my voice. A guitarist in Miami takes it and transcribes it, and we have a song. Once I opened myself up to that possibility, it started flowing. Life is full of inspiration for songs. I could write all day, but at some point you have to turn it off. I have to pay my bills, you know?”

She already has enough material for another album, one she hopes to lay down this fall in Miami. Daydream was recorded in New York with a group of first-rate musicians. They seem to have clicked with the singer, and I’m surprised when Stine informs me they hadn’t worked together before. “We were all professionals,” she says. “You set a chart in front of them, they read it, play it, and sound like they’ve done it lots of times.”

With her background, it’s not surprising that Stine listens to all kinds of music. She relies on XM Satellite Radio for her daily dose of hard rock, up-and-coming artists, singer-songwriters, and—she fearlessly admits—new age music. “It’s very relaxing.”

Stine never subscribed to the cookie-cutter philosophy. Rather than name any specific vocal influences, she describes the evolution of her singing style as subconscious. “You take what’s very natural for you. I’ve listened to all types of music my whole life,” she says. “It’s kind of like a tapestry, I guess, of all different types of players and vocalists.”

Stine plans to do more touring in the future. Until then, she will continue to work up new material. Daydream—released on Stine’s own label--is currently being sold and played in Barnes & Noble music stores nationwide. The CD is also sold through Stine’s website, amazon.com, and cdbaby.com.

“As an artist, there’s something that compels you to create and be creative,” Stine says. “That creative spirit is there, whether it’s music or painting or whatever. Music is where I’m gifted, and it’s the obvious funnel for that. I feel connected to life through doing what I love.”

Stine also has a master’s degree in psychology. I wonder if that’s helped her deal with club owners, promoters, and other musicians. “I don’t think so!” she laughs. “I think it helps to maybe understand people a little better…myself more than anything.”

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Additional Disc Recommendations
Willie Nile: Streets of New York (00:02:59)
Willie Nelson: You Don’t Know Me—The Songs of Cindy Walker (Lost Highway)
Motorhead: Kiss of Death (Sanctuary)
The Big Sleep: Son of the Tiger (Frenchkiss)
DVD: Tommy Emmanuel Live at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat, Australia (Favored Nations)

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