Rich Robinson's talents are already familiar to the millions of fans who've embraced his work as guitarist/songwriter/co-founder of the Black Crowes. But his debut solo effort Paper is a potent musical statement that's likely to come as a pleasant surprise to even his most ardent admirers.

The self-produced album - on the artist's own Key Hole label - finds Robinson singing lead and playing most of the instruments on 14 original compositions that reveal the young veteran to be both a distinctive, eloquent lyricist and an engaging, expressive singer.

While rockers like "Know Me," "Enemy" and "Yesterday I Saw You" embody the ballsy, rootsy crunch that put Robinson's former band on the map, Paper also encompasses a more thoughtful, introspective side, as well as an unmistakably adventurous sonic vision that manifests itself in the acoustic, orchestral and psychedelic textures of such tunes as "Veil," "When You Will," "Falling Away" and most notably "Forgiven Song", which appears on the 2004 Shut Eye Records release, The United State of Americana, Volume One.

Rather than coasting on his formidable past successes, Rich Robinson is clearly thrilled to be conquering new creative territory. "This whole project," he asserts, "has been a completely positive situation from the start. There's no stress, no bullshit, and I'm really excited about the whole thing. I'm really happy with this record, which was my only goal. And now I'm looking forward to getting it out there and playing these songs on tour, and seeing what happens."