bio

Photo by Evangeline Lane

Robin Lane grew up in California in the 1960′s, when bands like the Byrds, the Doors and Buffalo Springfield ruled the Sunset Strip and wrote the soundtrack to the riots and protest movements of the counterculture. As the daughter of Ken Lane, Dean Martin’s accompanist, Robin was encouraged to nurture her musical talent. In the richly creative but blatantly chauvinistic folk-rock revolution, her musical peers were impressed with the talents of this “girl singer.”

Robin moved to the east coast and eventually to Boston, where she was seized with the energy and passion of punk rock. She changed her writing style and vocal approach and carefully assembled a band she called The Chartbusters. In 1979, after considerable local success, she and the band were signed to Warner Brothers Records. The group had the 11th video ever played on MTV, did several national tours, and was voted one of Rolling Stone Magazine’s Top 10 New Bands of 1980. Despite their success, the band dissolvedafter only 3 years. When Robin announced her pregnancy, she was told “Once a woman has a baby in this business, she’s over.”

Robin’s journey, from Hollywood wild child to iconic singer and songwriter, through her struggles as an artist and single mother, led her to develop “A Woman’s Voice” and “Songbird Sings,” therapeutic songwriting workshops designed to help incarcerated and abused women, elders, youth at risk and survivors of trauma tell their stories in song.

Robin’s songs, and the music she helps others create, provide the soundtrack for a range of moods, thoughts, and obsessions. Her successes and failures, along with her determination to create, to sing, to touch other lives, and to live an authentic life, speak to the human spirit in a profound and universal language. Robin’s current work makes us reconsider the influence and importance of music in a culture where the forgotten voices often sing the most powerful songs.