Chris Robinson’s future is as clear as “New Earth Mud,” the first solo CD by the somewhat former lead singer of the Black Crowes.

The Crowes, who took rock music back to its roots during the 1990s, are officially on”hiatus.” It’s a word that in this case represents Robinson seeking to explore what’s beyond the “retro” label the band had come to consider a negative stereotype.

“In a showbiz sense, I guess you could call it a trial separation,” said Robinson during a recent telephone interview to promote his Dec. 14 concert at the State Theatre in Portland. “I’m very proud of the Black Crowes and all the work we?ve done, but it was one of those things that it started to become a bummer. The Black Crowes are always there, but right now I’m focusing on the future.”

Indeed, Robinson, now 35, has taken the risky career step of stepping away from the Atlanta-based band he founded with his brother Rich in 1984, a band that sold more than 10 million albums worldwide and were perhaps even more popular in live shows.

In fact, Robinson may be hard to recognize now compared to his Black Crowes days and his anemic, whirling-dervish persona featuring long hair and T-shirts emblazoned with marijuana leaves. These days he’s got a new haircut. He’s added a few pounds. He looks more like an English grad assistant than a rocker.

He’s also gone Hollywood, at least in his personal life. Robinson is married to Academy Award-winning actress Kate Hudson (“Almost Famous”) – Goldie Hawn’s daughter – and now lives in California. When it came time to record his new CD this spring, he opted to do it in Paris, where his wife was filming a movie.

“By recording in Paris, we also were able to get away from the corporate structure of the music business,” he said. “I didn’t want anyone coming in, hearing what we were doing and making any suggestions. I didn’t want anyone else’s opinion. Whatever came out of the sessions was going to represent the group of songs I wanted to put out there.”

What Robinson has produced is an introspective mix of moods and musical styles accentuated by his soulful lyrics and the electric guitars that represent a link to the Black Crowes. Robinson wrote or co-wrote all 12 songs on “New Earth Mud,” working closely with best friend and co-producer Paul Stacey.

“To me, there are no such things as progressive or retro,” he said. “I look at music as more of a molten state, because my creative energies are everchanging. With ‘New Earth Mud,’ there are elements of folk, roots, and rhythm and blues, along with a healthy dose of psychedelic music.”

Those sound like the characteristics of a typical Black Crowes album, but the experimental qualities of “Better Than The Sun” and “She’s On Her Way,” the acoustic-piano blends of “Silver Car” and “Kids That Ain’t Got None,” and the modern-day love songs “Katie Dear” and “Could You Really Love Me” suggest a drastically evolving musical direction.

“The Black Crowes were truly a group effort, but mine is an unadulterated, singular musical landscape,” Robinson said. “I have a different relationship with these songs because they come from me sitting down alone with an acoustic guitar and working out the melody, lyrics and imagery. This record is the musical dialogue of an artist in his middle age. It’s definitely more representative of how I’m living than other music I’ve made.”

Reviews of “New Earth Mud” have been mixed, as have commercial results. But Robinson is defining success his own way.

“The Black Crowes achieved a measure of commercial success, but we refused to see success as solely that,” he said. “But with lots of bands, that’s all they see is the format they are put into by those who make those decisions.

“My desire as a solo artist is to be commercially successful, but to be successful while being able to speak to a broad range of people. If I had been commercially minded about my career now, I would have gone in a much different direction in terms of fashion, formula, pretty much everything. But true success lies in the freedom to sound the way I want to sound, and to say the things I want to say, and that’s what I’m doing.”

Tickets for the Chris Robinson concert are available at the State Theatre box office and all Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at 775-3331, and online at www.cc.com.