Fulks returns to roots on "Upland Stories"
The disc is the follow-up to "Gone Away Backward" in 2013.
The release focuses on Fulks' perspective through literary narrative lenses like James Agee's 1936 trip to Alabama and the resultant novel "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" and tales based in the "upland areas" of Virginia and North Carolina where Fulks grew up. He has lived in Chicago for many years.
Two other songs are based on Agee's trip - "America Is a Hard Religion and "A Miracle."
The dozen-song release also will include "Fare Thee Well, Carolina Gals," a folk song from the perspective of a man who has let life's possibilities pass him by, and in "Never Come Home," in which a sick man returns to spend his last days among an unwelcoming clan of pious, hard-bitten Kentuckians.
Fulks received help from Todd Phillips emerged in the 1970s as bassist in David Grisman's and Tony Rice's classic lineups. Frequent Bill Frisell collaborator Jenny Scheinman played violin, as did Shad Cobb. The two Chicagoans on the record are Flatlanders guitarist Robbie Gjersoe and trad-jazz drummer Alex Hall. Guitarist Fats Kaplin and avant-gardist Wayne Horvitz complete the ensemble.
Songs on the CD are:
1. Alabama at Night
2. Baby Rocked Her Dolly
3. Never Come Home
4. Sarah Jane
5. Auny Peg's New Old Man
6. Needed
7. South Bend Soldiers On
8. America Is a Hard Religion
9. A Miracle
10. Sweet As Sweet Comes
11. Katy Kay
12. Fare Thee Well, Carolina Gals
More news for Robbie Fulks
- 09/05/25: The 502s, Fulks, Reid/Henry, Gardner, Barham out with new music
- 08/08/25: "Now Then," it's Robbie Fulks
- 03/17/23: Fulks looks at bluegrass with "Longhair Bluegrass"
- 02/17/23: Fulks goes down easy with "One Glass of Whiskey"
- 01/25/23: Compass signs Fulks
- 08/10/18: Lewis, Fulks, Jennings out with new discs
- 05/30/18: Fulks, Lewis go "Wild! Wild! Wild!"
- 10/13/15: Fulks, The Mekons team up
CD reviews for Robbie Fulks
The recent and unexpected death of Todd Snider reminds that none of us are immune from the passage of time, and (as we are reminded here within "Ol' Folks") that we must give flowers while we can, and that includes to under-appreciated (by any commercial measure) singer-songwriters.
Kudos then to the always engaging Robbie Fulks, now comfortably into his 60s and increasingly introspective, who has delivered his 17th collection of original songs.
With acerbic honesty augmented by ...
The Americana Outcast Robbie Fulkshas been delivering spellbinding albums since the late '90s, but has never returned to bluegrass in that time. Select songs within both "Upland Stories" and especially "Gone Away Backward" flirted with 'grass, but it hasn't been since his sole album with The Special Consensus (1989's "A Hole in My Heart") that Fulks has fully immersed himself in the beauty that is unabashed bluegrass.
Fulks' vocal style ...
Twenty years ago, Robbie Fulks became a beloved alt.-country figure by writing modern honky tonk and country songs that rose above the work of many other contemporary traditionalists thanks to a combination of sharp wit and engaging storytelling. In 2013, Fulks gained critical acclaim for "Gone Away Backward," an album that took a deeper dive into history by embracing the traditional Appalachian folk music that proved to be country music's bedrock. That exploration continues with ...
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