Robinella

Robinella & the CC String Band is the brainchild of mandolinist Cruz Contreras, who formed the group's precursor, the Stringbeans, in 1997 while attending the University of Tennessee at Knoxville as a jazz piano major. The bluegrass band's co-founder was singer/guitarist Robin Ella Tipton, and it also featured other UT students Jay Clark, Clint Cagle, and Joel Keebler. Adding jazz elements to their sound, the Stringbeans attracted local attention, but not enough to keep Clark, Cagle, and Keebler from departing when they finished school. Contreras and Tipton married, and by 1...