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Radar Report
For a singer-songwriter who loves country music as much as Chicago's Robbie Fulks, he often has a strange way of showing his affection. Over the course of five albums of original, eclectic material, he has written a rousing kiss-off to country music's capital city ("F**k This Town"), insulted his fans ("Roots Rock Weirdos") and has even suggested rubbing out perhaps country music lovers' favorite night of the week ("Let's Kill Saturday Night"). But it is just this subversive behavior that has made Fulks one of the most interesting and enjoyable purveyors of not just country music but contemporary music in America. Some would call his music alternative country, but its actually more in line with the work of such fearless,literate and witty songwriters as Roger Miller, Shel Silverstein and Bob McDill, who were active in the 60s and 70s.
It's been three years since Fulks' double release of 13 Hillbilly Giants, a tribute to some of country's obscure songwriters and his adventurous song cycle, Couples in Trouble. But now he's back with Georgia Hard (Yep Roc), a self-produced collection of 15 new originals that blaze with heart and soul, intelligence and humor. It also sounds amazing, thanks to some of Fulk's guest musicians, a who's who of great players on today's country scene: Sam Bush on mandolin; Lloyd Green on steel guitar and dobro; Redd Volkaert on electric guitar; Hank Singer on fiddle; Alison Brown on banjo and bassist Alison Prestwood and Dennis Crouch on upright bass.
"I think it's just the best thing I've done," says Fulks. "I did two country records when I started out. And when I sat down to write this one, I thought I could do it better, and really the writing, the playing, the recording and the mix on this thing are so superior to the other country stuff that I've done."
A gifted guitarist, a natural performer and a soulful singer, Fulks has also mastered the art of writing the great country song title, which often serve as effective advertisements for the songs themselves. On Georgia Hard alone there are winners such as "Leave It to a Loser," "I'm Gonna TakeYou Home (And Make You Like Me)," "All You Can Cheat," "Doin' Right (For All the Wrong Reasons)" and "Goodbye, Cruel Girl."
"The title thing is so so strong in Nashville," says Fulks. "I'll never forget one of my first trips there. I came down with a little cassette of 13 new songs that I'd written. I gave it to a guy at Almo Irving, and he looked at the cover and said, 'Well, I like your ideas.'" In a perfect world, Fulks would beriding high on the country charts, but he has long since come to terms with the whole mainstream and alternative country music dichotomy. He knows that many of his fans have "an aggressive uninterest in that whole mainstream country world." But he also believes that what he does has crossover appeal. "I don't think there's anything really inaccessible or Greek about what I do that a fan of, say, Alan Jackson or the Dixie Chicks wouldn't beable to pick up on. What I do is write catchy songs with economical arrangements and with, hopefully, a high entertainment quotient."
by Erik Philbrook
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ROBBIE FULKS serves up country music with a twist
