this monday at the hideout

A night of Everly Brothers music, faithful to the original recorded arrangements, since they're untoppable and the songs are pretty well unimaginable removed from fundamentals such as opening guitar-banging motif and vocal harmony arrangement. Okay, there may be one or two solos added. It's nice hearing solos now and then. Naturally Steve Frisbie will be there, in the Don role, and besides Steve, Scott Stevenson, Larry Kohut, Gerald Dowd, and Robbie Gjersoe. One of the pleasures of singing this music the last few days, by the way,  is using "date" as a euphemism for teen sex. So join us for this date won't you?

this monday at the hideout

I continue the long residency wrap-up by revisiting favorite friends and themes. This Monday it's those old roustabouts The Hoyle Brothers, minus Miles and Lance, but with their ace pilot-gunner team of Steve 'n' Brian on guitar 'n' steel. About half of our set will be patriotic country. (Clunky code word for "unabashed, blood-in-the-eyes jingoism.") The other half will be...just country.

this monday at the hideout

As elaborate in its conception as it is ill-advised in its undertaking: Lollapalouis! Lucky spectators will run a superbly entertaining gamut of Louises/Lewises from the mid-20th c. to the present day, in a program tenderly curated by Gerald Dowd, Brian Wilkie, Casey McDonough, and myself. Jerry Lee Lewis, for example. Louis Untermeyer, for another example. There will be Louis/Lewis prizes given, and anyone who can prove his or her (let's not forget Rilo Kiley's Jenny!) name is really Lewis, or Louis, will be admitted free.

south by southwest

First, just to really drill it in, the Guitar World site has a song off Upland Stories (out April 1)

http://www.guitarworld.com/artists-artist-news-acoustic-nation-news-premieres/robbie-fulks-premieres-new-song-aunt-pegs-new

...and Funny or Die has a weird thing I did at Bob Odenkirk's house in January, also to promote the record

http://www.funnyordie.com/articles/8ecfd3cc2d/household-name-bob-odenkirk-debuts-new-interview-show-with-guest-robbie-fulks?_cc=__d___&_ccid=a13bf53bbdc9d7de

Which is funnier?

Second, I'll be back at the dreaded Austin conference next week. There's lots of shows.

Tuesday: Backstage at El Mercado, 5P. Alone.

Wednesday: Gingerman, 4P. Quintet. Swan Dive, 8P, sextet.

Thursday: Broken Spoke, 1P. Sextet. Victorian Room at Driskill Hotel, midnight. Quintet.

Friday: Yard Dog, 1:30P. Sextet. Flatstock, 5:30P, duo.

Saturday: Brooklyn Country Cantina at Licha's, 1:30. Duo, maybe trio. Hyatt lobby, 7P. Alone.

Seems like a lot, but believe it or not, I'll probably be doing some other stuff here and there too as I bop around town and visit friends. Among the people playing my songs (including several from the new one) will be Shad Cobb, Tommy Detamore, Dallas Wayne, Kevin Smith, Dave Sanger, Brennen Leigh, and Josh Kantor, the fabled organist from Fenway Park, who also plays accordion.

this monday at the hideout

Two things, kind of separate. First, I'll be filming a little promo stuff for my next record, Upland Stories. It'll be me with my guitar, plunking through 4 or 5 tunes and talking about them as space aliens with spherical cameras for heads flit sinisterly about the room in a half-crouch -- fun!

Then, the real show, which is me and three of my friends (though I would never advertise it that way, the way they always do, "Robbie Fulks and Friends," because what kind of moron gets wet about that? "Get this -- for only ten dollars we get to see not only the great Robbie Fulks, but a couple of his friends! I bet his friends are something else! It's going to be such a friendly show...I know how much I love my own friends, and I'll bet anything that I'll form a similar attachment to Robbie's friends, who are perhaps even more musically talented than my own!"). The names of my friends are Gerald Dowd, Liam Davis, and K.C. McDonough, and we're going to bash through about 15 Alex Chilton tunes. Big Star, Box Tops, later Alex, love it all, I'm just that old.

The first thing, the video promo thing, is limited seating and advance tickets and sold out, so forget about that. It's due to start at 7 and end at 7:40, and I really don't think that's unrealistic. So if you get there at the usual a-bit-past-seven and are sad or pissed-off that a flunky will be denying you entrance to the music room, just "smoke some dope," as we used to say back when Alex Chilton was living, and wait for 7:40 to roll around, and walk in the fucking room.

this monday at the hideout

It's my final Hideout get-together with my friend Justin Roberts. Justin's music for children is celebrated across the Anglosphere, but we'll be doing mostly music for mature, if not clinically depressed, persons. We'll be joined by Anna Steinhoff and Matt Brown, who'll make a pared-down hipster string section for us on cello and violin.

this monday at the hideout

Jim + Rob Show, starring Jim DeWan. Enjoy the chef, Tribune food writer, and knife-book author reliving his early 1990s incarnation as a twitchy cabaret comic diva. Slated: flatpicking, songs-of-the-month new and old, swing, Irish, beloved Jim DeWan original ballads such as "Hitler and Jesus," and assorted gimlet snarkery in the key of B-serious.

this monday at the hideout

It's an evening of Sondheim favorites this Monday, as the curvaceously imperial and dauntingly Stritch-esque divas Keely Vasquez and Bethany Thomas, pianist Scott Stevenson, and rude fuck Jon Langford join yours truly for an adventure in exquisite lyrical craft and utter musical confusion. Fans of Assassins and Sunday In The Park With George will not be disappointed; many, many others likely will be.

the new look

From the Russian Tea Room to the Trump Tower! What a snazzy makeover we've gotten here at the worldwide. The friendly navigational tools are sure to make blog-reading and record-shopping like falling off a log. The magnificent (except for the subject) photos taken by Andy Goodwin provide an environmental hue so warm and deep and cozy, you'll be tempted to bring your business partners here to butter them up and shoot them. Many thanks to Mike Sosin of the fledgling "Bloodshot" record label of Chicago, Ill. for bringing this website to life and ignoring all helpful input. Be sure to let us know what you think! We can't wait to ignore you.

this monday at the hideout

High Plains Jamboree is the group name for Brennen Leigh, her husband Noel McKay, fiddler Beth Chrisman, and a bassist I know only as Simon. Brennen's one of my faves. You might remember her from a show we did at the Hideout last year. She sang sweet country duets with both me and Noel, showed off her songwriting chops, and picked tasty bluegrass mandolin.

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how out of it?

It's time to play How Out Of It Am I? Animating event: tonight at DCA airport the place I sat down to eat at had ipads to order from. Yeah, asshole, I managed to put in my order, no problem there. But when it came time to swipe my card, I couldn't figure out where to do it. A black guy sitting next to me noticed me limply brushing my credit card against a black plastic rectangle jutting out from the bottom of the screen. "It's over there," he said, pointing to the familiar short vertical shelf sitting some nine inches to the right. "Thanks!" I said with sincere gratitude, adding explanatorily, "I was born a very long time ago." The black man was so gracious, he said, "No, it confused me at first, too."

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this monday at the hideout

How much do I have to do for you people? I've jumped into standing pools of water, knocked teeth out, broken noses with flying shoes, held high F# for 20 seconds, rapped freestyle, taken off my pants, fiddled, memorized dozens of pages of single-spaced text for a one-time-only performance, picked up and down as fast as possible, and turned my private affairs into jokes at the risk of permanently alienating everyone I love just to get a chuckle from you.

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