this monday at the hideout

By Robbie on June 14, 2013

I'll be ripping it up with my old friends Gerald Dowd, Mike Fredrickson, and Grant Tye, a/k/a Country-Rock Road Band of Underground Late-Nineties/Early-to-Mid-Aughts Legend. I see from some of the titles being bandied about that we are planning to perform some songs not let out for air since 1999 A.D. It seems that, at least with music, the distant past always trumps the recent past as an inviting scene to revisit. It's the old battle of the theory of renewed youthful fun vs. the reality of the disintegrating and otherwise radically altered corpus: come see which gets the upper hand!

this monday at the hideout

By Robbie on June 6, 2013

Whoa gang, check this one out. "Welcome Summer, With Sweet Summertime Pop Music." I'm talkin' Friends of Distinction here! England Dan and J.F. Coley! Weezer! Jonathan Richman! A bunch of AM favorites from 40 years back along with some off-road maneuvers. Artiness level: Zero. If you're not smiling and skipping down the street after a night like this, your name must be Eeyore! The band will be: Nora O'Connor, John Abbey, Scott Stevenson, Liam Davis, and Alex Hall.

the new record is out August 27th!

By Robbie on June 4, 2013

American Songwriter has a thing about my forthcoming record, Gone Away Backward, and return to Bloodshot Records:

http://www.americansongwriter.com/2013/06/robbie-fulks-returns-to-bloodshot-with-gone-away-backward/

I'm impatient to have this out, get some reactions to it, and play more of the tunes out live, though I've been playing three or four of these on a consistent basis for a few years now (and a friend tells me that the band Town Mountain is covering one live -- seems like a sign a record's release has been pushed back a bit too far when covers of its material precede its release date!). I'll be out on the highways of this once-proud nation this fall, doing a lot of dates with a superskilled group of acoustic guys. Stay tuned for details on dates and personnel!

this monday at the hideout

By Robbie on May 30, 2013

I mick -- er, make -- music with my friend Jim DeWan. Nearly everything we'll play (Jimmie Rodgers, Norman Blake, Riley Puckett, Jackie DeShannon, Stephen Foster, Everlys, a few originals) is something we played circa 1991 at a place up on Damen Avenue, south of Irving, called the Augenblick.

Either the Augenblick was one of the most beautiful little art/music/hipster watering holes on this continent, or we were cigarette-addled easily impressed twentysomethings. It was run by an immensely likeable and tuned-in married couple, who later sold the place to some smarmy hipsters, and then divorced when the guy came out. A little later yet, he got very upset with me for using the word "faggot" in a song, and I haven't heard from him since.

The Hideout bears some similarities to the Augenblick of old, what with the creatives that staff the place, the granola-y and community-conscious bookings, the unassuming acoustic superiority of the performance space, and the likeable marrieds helming the roster. And so the fine spirit of artisanship goes forward. Jim and I, on the other hand, have grown decrepit, four-eyed, and bitter. When we deliver the old material to you on Monday night, even though a lot of it will still be in the original key, the effect may be chilling, like hearing the soundtrack of "Free to Be You and Me" sung by the terminally ill. Come one, come all!

this monday at the hideout

By Robbie on May 24, 2013

I sing and play country music, originals leavened with a few outside ones, with my friend Audrey Auld, the distinguished (and often hilarious) Australian singer/writer. She's got a new record coming out soon with some lovely tunes, of which we'll do 5 or 6....