in a house. "It's a totally different vibe doing it in a house, much more conducive to being creative," Rich Robinson commented in 1996. Other members of the band credited the more communal atmosphere of Chateau de la Crowe with making the album a success. "We lived and breathed together all day long," remembers then-bassist Johnny Colt. "It was a caravan of people; people upstairs watching crazy art films, people cutting tracks and eating food. There were dogs running everywhere. And (producer) Jack (Joseph Puig) was pulling his hair out over the whole thing of course." Then-guitarist Marc Ford concurred with Colt's sentiment, adding that the atmosphere created by recording in a house fostered his musical relationship with Rich Robinson. "It just keeps flowering," he noted in 1996. "Rich used to insist he was a rhythm player, and I told him to stick his toe as a lead player in the water a little bit, and now we're playing with each other, listening to each other. You can do all that sound-weaving." With the bulk of the recording process done, the band returned to Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles, CA to put on the finishing touches and begin the mastering process. Promotion and release The Black Crowes began the supporting tour for Three Snakes and One Charm on July 5, 1996 in Burbank, CA, where the album was given its world premiere. The album would see its official release on July 23, 1996, several weeks into a world tour that would go straight through the end of the year and into the next, expanding their in-concert repertoire to more than 90 songs. As a means of promotion, the band performed several radio and television broadcasts to showcase the new album. The most noteworthy of these appearances came when the band appeared on the television program VH1 Storytellers in the Summer of 1996. The show was relatively new at the time, with each episode capturing artists performing in front of a (mostly small and intimate) live audience, telling stories about their music, writing experiences and memories. The Black Crowes' installment was the fifth in the series, which saw 87 episodes over its original run. Three Snakes garnered generally positive reviews upon its release. Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave album three stars on AllMusic, stating the album was "a winning album, mainly because the Black Crowes' musicianship continues to deepen -- the