The Past
Kim Robins—singer, songwriter, band leader, entrepreneur, nurse, mother, grandmother and all-around busy woman—produced her first recording in 2013. It is still available and titled Forty Years Late. “What’s the fuss” you might wonder? The buzz is that Kim was somewhat “late” in life in getting to the point where that CD was created but now is back in the bluegrass business with innovative ideas and projects that are underway.
Most of Kim’s background has already been documented on her own website, Facebook, streaming platforms, and sources for purchasing music. Herein you will find the highlights of Robins’s early days and perhaps a few morsels not previously reported, but the intent here is to cover her current and future endeavors.
To date, Kim has three recordings: Forty Years Late, Raining in Baltimore (2017) and Leave the Porch Light On (2021). She wrote a holiday tune for Pinecastle Records (“You and Christmas Cookies”), released in 2020 with other artists.
Kim says she got the idea for the title Forty Years Late from her former spouse, Butch Robins, who had released an LP by that name. Kim grew up in a family band setting in Indiana with a father who had a country band and loved music. She remembers being on stage with her dad at age five and knew then she wanted to sing. She joined her dad by singing two songs on stage at age six. By the time she was eight she was one of the original and youngest members of the Little Nashville Opry in Brown County, Indiana, when it opened in 1973. (It has since been destroyed by fire.)
She took guitar lessons but did not play on stage. Kim got involved in softball and socializing with friends and did not make enough time for music growing up. She is currently taking the online Kenny Smith Guitar course. Singing came more naturally and her mom spent a lot of time with her to learn harmony. Forty Years Late came along when she was 45 years old.
As a teenager, she got interested in the typical activities of growing up and learning about life. Music took a backseat. Robins gave birth to a child as a teenager and worked her way through college as a single mom, and she studied fashion merchandising for her first degree and later earned a second degree in nursing.
Fast forward to the year 2000 when she met and married Butch Robins. Butch was one of the longest tenured banjoists for Bill Monroe and The Blue Grass Boys, and bassist for the New Grass Revival, earning him the distinction of being “the one and only New Grass/Blue Grass Boy.” Butch served in the US Army in South Carolina and there met Snuffy Jenkins & Pappy Sherrill, which inspired him to dedicate his first solo album, Forty Years Late, to Snuffy.
Although Butch and Kim divorced in just a few short years, they remain friendly with each other. As a result, Butch was fully supportive of Kim’s request to use the name of his LP for her first CD. Kim says Butch encouraged her and played banjo on the project. As a special touch, Butch and Kim’s dad played the bonus track featuring instrumental versions of “What A Friend We Have in Jesus” and “Shuckin’ the Corn.”
Butch said Kim is “…one of the hardest working people I have met in my life. I was surprised when she pulled it off. When I heard it, it was really good. When she sets her mind to something, she will accomplish it admirably.”
Kim also recruited Michael Cleveland on fiddle, Jeff Guernsey (former fiddler for Vince Gill), Lynn Manzenberger (formerly with The Wildwood Valley Boys) on bass, and Nathan Livers on mandolin. Kim and Butch did not play together professionally, but she did come to some shows when Butch played with the Cumberland Highlanders with Joe Isaacs and Wayne Lewis (Blue Grass Boy).
In 2013 she made her first trip to the International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass during its first year in Raleigh. Robins says “I did not know anyone. I introduced myself to folks based on reading their name tags.” That led to the Pinecastle Records contract, with Ron Stewart producing her second album. Members of the Boxcars played on the recording, along with Rickey Wasson and Shannon Slaughter.
Robins managed her life for 20 to 30 years as a single mom and eventually started a band (named, of course, 40 Years Late) and used local pickers from the Indiana area. They played a lot of fairs and small venues.
The Present
Robins met Mark Gines in 2006. They married in 2008. Mark, a photographer, did not know a lot about bluegrass at first, but now knows many people in the relatively small bluegrass community. His first exposure to bluegrass was through the Cherryholmes band. Mark said, “I thought they were amazing. There were lots of family bands that lived close to Bloomington and Bean Blossom, so I have a greater respect for it now. Now I know what it’s all about.”
Kim was writing many of the songs she performed, while keeping a busy life together. She travels a lot with her job in the nursing profession and looks for signs along the road that might be a hook for a song. Robins remarked, “I’ll think of a line and put it in my recorder and will develop it later. I go for many months without creativity.” She has done some co-writing with Jerry Salley and pitched songs to The Grascals, Shannon Slaughter and Donna Ulisse.
Donna reported, “Kim sure knows her way around songwriting. I enjoyed getting to collaborate with her while she was with us during a Little House Songwriting Workshop. After the second day of the workshop event, Rick and I always enjoy cooking a big Southern dinner and invite others to join us. When the moaning and groaning that comes from eating too much is done, we clear the room and sit to pick and sing. Well, when Kim opened her mouth and belted her song here among the crowd, the folks went crazy. She’s a songbird indeed!” A strong endorsement from Donna.
In 2015 Robins announced she was calling it quits as reported in Bluegrass Today. John Lawless, primary author and editor of the online platform, reported in October 2015: “The rigors of touring while also maintaining a full-time, non-music career have taken their toll. Kim shared with her fans: ‘It is with much thought and consideration that I have decided to disband the 40 Years Late band. The constant struggle of running a band and keeping band members has proven to be more challenging than I had expected. My heart will remain in music, and I am still planning to finish a new album with Rickey Wasson and Ron Stewart producing.
“My birthday show on November 7th will be my last show. Thank you to everyone who has helped me over the years. A special thanks to Spencer Sallee and Caleb Garrett for their continued loyalty. I wish them both success. Thank you to everyone who has booked my band over the last few years. I hope to see you all in some capacity down the road.’”
Robins might have given up touring and performing but she stayed connected to bluegrass. She was accepted to fill a scarce seat in the annual IBMA Leadership Bluegrass class in 2018 but had a serious fall while ice skating with her granddaughter. She suffered a grade three concussion, the worst one could get but had no internal bleeding or skull fracture. IBMA agreed to reschedule her attendance for the 2019 class. (Mandolinist Scott Napier took the 2018 seat.)
In 2020 Robins established another working band and toured, looking for that year to be her best and getting on the festival circuit. She played Song of the Mountains, opened for Dale Ann Bradley at Meadowgreen Music Park in Kentucky and was booked at Bean Blossom, Sam Jam, and Bluegrass in the Hills when COVID hit, and her nursing career demanded more. Kim continues to play selected dates and is booking more in 2024.
The Future
Not one to let all these adventures get her down, Kim charges ahead. Her next venture is to build a coffee house and offer a place for live music, similar to Lorraine Jordan’s Coffee & Café in Garner, North Carolina, adjacent to Raleigh. Robins has met with Jordan a couple of times and has toured the coffee house. Robins found Jordan to be very helpful and picked up tips on using food trucks, machine placement, promotion and having adequate electric power. Lorraine said, “Kim is a hard worker for our music and has some great new events and venues she is working on. She and I chatted about Lorraine’s Coffee House, and I am so excited she is going to open a place similar to what we have here in Garner, seven miles east of Raleigh. In our talks I could tell she had a good business mind and some creative ideas. I’m excited for her!”
Robins lives about an hour away from Bean Blossom, which needs more music venues. Kim says, “We’re in the middle of nowhere, but we have lots of folks around us. Evansville, Bloomington and Terre Haute are close by. Indianapolis is about one hour away.” She says if this dream works out, they would like to have a show every Saturday—maybe an acoustic Thursday, perhaps something on Fridays, with a bigger artist on Saturdays.
As reported in Bluegrass Today regarding the new coffee house, “It will be a family thing, with shows over by 10:00 pm, and with no alcohol. In the beginning we will have food trucks come in, but we may eventually offer pastries and sandwiches, and local Amish food. And there will be picking in the parking lot.” The proposed venue will be called Blue Zebra for Kim’s love of bluegrass and zebra for her husband’s career as a basketball referee. It will be located in Greene County, Indiana.
Kim has also become a promoter of the Red Bird Bluegrass Festival in Bloomington, Indiana, scheduled for July 2024. Featured will be the Grascals, the Lonesome River Band, the Clay Hess Band, Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road, Branded Bluegrass, Downriver Collective, and of course Kim Robins. Look at the Fowler Pumpkin Patch website for exact location (https://fowlerpumpkinpatch.com/)
With energy to spare, Robins indicated she has always wanted to own her own record label. Her parents and her brother all passed away within a brief span of time. She says her parents had always been conservative with their finances and she took over upon their passing. Kim wanted to honor them in some way. That led to a partnership with Melonie and Steve Wilson and the creation of Ram Cat Music, LLC. in 2022. Kim serves as CEO, while Melanie handles publicity and Steve works on the engineering pieces when he is not building banjos.
They have signed their first band, Retro 78, consisting of friends across the Carolinas. The first recording was engineered and produced by Alan Bibey and mixed by Steve Wilson. The project is a five song, self-titled EP.
Robins is also currently collaborating with Dale Ann Bradley on a new recording. Dale Ann has picked out some songs that will be different for Kim, perhaps a little more contemporary. Kim says this will be a healing album after having lost her brother to lung cancer, her dad to old age, and her mom to a heart attack – all within one year. She sees this as a healing album for herself and is using Broken as a working title. She might include a train song. The songs are upbeat but have meaning and messages.
As a traveling nurse, Kim saw the impact of COVID on many music careers. Lots of gigs were cancelled and she could not commit to festivals due to being on call. So, the new recording will be her response—somewhat like recovering from PTSD. As of this writing, Kim is singing a duet with Robert Hale, using Ethan Burkhardt on bass, Matt Leadbetter on Dobro, Scott Vestal on banjo, and Tony Wray on guitar. Michael Cleveland adds the fiddle breaks, and the mandolin part is still pending.
Dale Ann remarked, “I am looking forward to producing Kim Robins’s new album. Her voice has great tone and expression. Those things make her voice unique and one you recognize right away. I cannot wait to start recording.”
Epilogue
Kim Robins calls her music traditional/contemporary with a country flare. She has learned a lot about the music business since her beginnings at age five and progressed to being an opening act for such artists as Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty, Barbara Mandrell and the Oak Ridge Boys.
Robins has experienced the bigoted aspects of some festivals that would not hire bands with a female lead. She says being a woman in bluegrass is hard. Notwithstanding these discouragements, she has kept pursuing her musical goals and many are now coming to fruition. We in the bluegrass community are all the better for her achievements in her own time. She is no longer forty years late, rather Kim is right on time.
Bob Webster