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The Navigator

Out of shadows, onto the stage

By RICK GERSHMAN
Published July 7, 2006

It can't be easy when you're known to the world only as somebody's something, especially when you have a successful life of your own.

Take Steadman Graham: self-made man, successful entrepreneur, author and educator. But no one cares about any of that.

Because after 20 years with one of the world's most powerful women, he's simply known as Oprah Winfrey's Longtime Boyfriend Whom She'll Never Marry, end of story.

Worse, take poor Chad Lowe: Even when he was a successful child actor, he played second fiddle to big brother, Rob, an even greater teen heartthrob.

So Chad grows up and slides out of Rob's shadow. He marries a nice young lady named Hilary Swank, also a former child actor. She's a sweet girl, though her first big role, The Next Karate Kid, should have been titled The Last Karate Kid.

Then Chad's bride goes off and wins an Oscar for Boys Don't Cry and forgets to thank Chad at the ceremony. She wins another one a few years later, then separates from Chad soon after.

And so Chad Lowe became Hilary Swank's Poor, Unappreciated Husband - For Now.

Which brings us to the Black Crowes, those crazy Southern blues-rock revivalists who play the Ford Amphitheatre tonight with a few other groove-friendly acts expect long, long, long jams.

The group, which reunited in 2005, is led by hippie beanpole vocalist Chris Robinson and his brother Rich - better known to everyone, of course, as Chris Robinson's Brother.

At least they called him that back in the early 1990s, when the Crowes blew up with groovy hits such as Hard to Handle, She Talks to Angels, Twice as Hard, Remedy and Thorn in My Pride.

But the Crowes fell off the radar in later years. So in 2000, when fading star Chris Robinson married a celebrity, he become best known as Kate Hudson's Emaciated Bohemian Husband.

Funny thing: Hudson herself wasn't too well-known yet, having just had her breakthrough role in the rock-music memoir Almost Famous.

Really, at the time, she was best known as Goldie Hawn's Daughter. Or, in a pinch, Kurt Russell's Stepdaughter.

Even that's a stretch, because even though Hudson considers Russell her true "dad" - he's lived with the family since Hudson was 3 - Hawn and Russell have never married.

And they've been together 23 years.

See, Steadman? Could be worse.

Rick Gershman can be reached at rgershman@sptimes.com or 226-3431. His Times blog, The Ill Literate, is at www.tampabay.com/blogs/tampaarts.

IF YOU GO

Black Crowes with Robert Randolph & The Family Band and Drive-By Truckers perform at 6:30 p.m. today at Ford Amphitheatre. Tickets are $22-$49.50. Call 287-8844.

[Last modified July 6, 2006, 12:32:59]