In 1990, Robbin had a few songs recorded
on a different label but today he and his brother, Howard Lofton work together with their
own label, "LoMac Records". Howard does the promotion and paperwork and Robbin
writes and sings the songs.
"Then and Now" is Robbin's
first release on LoMac Records. Robbin wrote all ten songs and his voice is the only voice
you will hear on those songs. Thanks to Robbin's obvious talents, Howard, with the help of
Charley McCoy, who plays piano, bass guitar and harmonica, was able to secure a great set
of musicians for this production; legends such as Jimmy Capps (member of the Grand Ole
Opry house band) playing lead guitar and dobro, Gene Christman (former drummer for Elvis)
playing drums, Mike Johnson playing steel guitar, Hoot Hester (also a member of the Grand
Ole Opry house band) playing the fiddle and acoustic guitar, and last but not least Don
Helms (former Drifting Cowboy with Hank Williams Sr.) with his steel guitar. I call that a
well rounded Nashville band... not to mention quite impressive.
It was an extra treat and a great honor
for Robbin that Don Helms agreed to lend his talents to the album for more than just the
obvious reasons. Robbin is not just a great admirer of Hank Sr., he and Howard live in
Georgiana, Ala., which was Hank's hometown. The first track of the CD is
"Hiram", a song about Hank's life and death... Hiram was Hank's his real first
name. Oddly enough, Robbin penned this song while working as a Security Officer at the
"Chapman Wood Yard". Robbin says, "Remember the song, 'The Log Train'?
Hank's father worked there up until 1929. Kind of eerie, don't you think?"
Like Hank Williams, Sr., Robbin McCombs
writes and sings songs that he feels... you'll hear his heartbreak as you listen to the
ballads like, "I Do" and "I'm in the Country" (which you can hear at
CDBaby). Others, which are featured here are, "I Have Three Hearts" and
"This Bottle I've Locked". Also "Dungeons of Darkness" and others that
I unfortunately couldn't post as I need to save some space for other artists... however,
it was too difficult to narrow my choices to only 5 songs so I ended up selecting 6... and
it was still a difficult choice.
There are also some upbeat tunes on the
album such as "Been There Done That' and "Living From the Bottle". All in
all, this album is for all country music fans who love traditional, down home, eat your
heart out music. "Then and Now" has it all, a great band, great production, and
great original songs written and sung by one greatly talented, Robbin McCombs. For a first
production album from LoMac Records, I say Howard and Robbin both are to be commended for
a first rate job.
"Then and Now"... an album of
songs that reflect to back then, still pertain to now and will hopefully go on till the
end of time.
