Steve Wildsmith

Sunday marks the end of an era for Blount County girl and East Tennessee musical darling Robinella, who will perform her final regular gig at Barley’s Taproom in Knoxville’s Old City.

For the past 11 years, swing-dancers, jazz lovers, country fans and those who love the lilting warble of Robinella’s unique style of music could count on one thing — at 8 p.m., Barley’s would transform into a showcase for a local treasure. First with her ex-husband and later with the band he led — the CCstringband — she rose steadily through the ranks of East Tennessee musicians, releasing an album for Sony and a follow-up for the Dualtone label and landing steady gigs around the country, including a slot on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.”

Despite absences here and there around the birth of her children — Cash, 5, and Beau, now 9 weeks old — and occasional breaks while she toured, Robinella always returned to Barley’s for a standing Sunday night tradition. Now, however, it’s time to bring it to a close, she told me today.

“I’m just ready to not have a regular show any more,” she said. “I’m going to pursue my career in a different direction and try to make it doing some other things. I’ve got my two little boys, and I’ll be doing some weekend shows and some weekend traveling a little bit, and we’re planning on some big things for the fall.”

That includes a long-awaited follow-up to her 2006 album for Dualtone, “Solace for the Lonely.” She’s leaning toward calling it “Black, White and Gold” — as we first reported last fall — and it’ll feature 13 new songs, she said. There are no plans to shop it around to labels either, she added.

“No way! No more labels — you don’t even need them,” she said. “All I need is a serious web designer. That’s all anybody needs anymore.”

As a treat for long-time lovers of her Barley’s show, another record — “Live From Barley’s” — will be released on Sunday night. Featuring 16 or 17 songs, it’s being mastered this week, she said, and will feature dialogue and commentary in addition to old standards and fan favorites.

Sunday’s show will also be a goodbye extravaganza with special guests, including her ex-husband, Cruz Contreras, on mandolin; local pedal steel ace Tom Pryor; and perhaps Cruz’s brother, Billy, on fiddle.

“The first set will be older songs with friends, and the second set will be newer material and the newer sound with the new band,” she said.

Planning out the setlist for her final Barley’s show has been a difficult task, she added.

“It’s hard! I’ve got my second set done, but I’m still trying to decide what to do for the first set with so many guests and soloists,” she said. “They’ll play for three or four songs, I think, and then someone else will get up there with me. We’re going to kind of roll like that.”

Sunday’s performance, it should be noted, is most certainly not the final one of her career — merely the end of her regular run of Barley’s gigs. She’ll always have a home at Barley’s Taproom, however, according to venue booking manager Robby Dubov.

“This is something we’ve been thinking about doing for a while now,” Dubov told me today. “Instead of putting Robin in her every Sunday night, I would rather get her in here two to four times a year for big shows, and that’s just impossible to do with a weekly thing. My goal is to get her in here on a Saturday night for standing-room-only shows.”

Sunday nights at Barley’s will continue to be geared toward roots music, Dubov added, with an emphasis on making it a listening room sort of environment. He’s talking with a number of local and regional bands and will rotate the lineup like he does with other days of the week; when Robinella releases her new album in December, there’s a good chance the show will be at Barley’s.

“We’ll always work closely with her, and she’ll always have a home here,” Dubov said. “We’re just both going in a little bit different direction.”

As for Robinella’s future, she’ll continue to play mom to her two boys and wife to her husband, Webster Bailey. The family calls Maryville home — they live on Lord Avenue — and if she ever does decide to perform a regular gig, it’ll be in Maryville, she said.

But before any such plans are made, she’ll take the time to mourn.

“It’s sad! It makes me sad to go, but I think, you know, you can’t play in one place for your whole career,” she said. “They’ve been real good to me there, but I think it’s going to be good for everybody to do something different on a Sunday. I’m playing a couple of shows in Birmingham and Atlanta, but right now, it looks like I won’t be back around until my December release.”

For more information on Robinella, visit her website. For more info on live music at Barley’s, visit the venue’s website.