Who is Robinella?
Robinella is the band of singer-songwriter Robin Ella Bailey. The band was first formed as Robinella and the CCstringband in the late 1990s by Robin Ella Tipton Contreras and former husband, Cruz Abdon Contreras (the "CC" in CCstringband) who met while studying at the University of Tennessee, Cruz being a jazz piano major and "Robinella" an illustration/art major. They released three albums under that name before shortening it to simply Robinella with the 2006 release of Solace for the Lonely, an album that began to explore areas of pop and funk. The album contains the country weeper "Teardrops," the funky "Waiting" and the uptempo "Oh So Sexy." Prior to that, much of the band's work could be described as a mixture of progressive bluegrass and jazz blues. Notable early songs include many originals by "Robinella" such as "Man Over" and covers such as Nanci Griffith's "Love at the Five and Dime," and "Flashdance (What A Feeling)" from the movie soundtrack "Flashdance" Robinella releas...
