this monday at the hideout
Me + my old friend and inspirer Gerald Dowd play diets. I mean duets! We'll play mostly songs from his new record, and fill it out with some of mine and some backcountry tunes.
fulksy news roundup
Couple things happening with me at present:
Foo Fighter Promo Ballyhoo. While the Fighters were in town for a show, their guitarist, Chris Shiflett, interviewed me for his podcast at the Bloodshot office. You just never know what strange thing is going to happen next; Mr. Shiflett is a country music devotee, and knows his stuff. We talked about such matters as Redd Volkaert, Steve Albini, and my fateful fork in the career road back in the early 1990s, between Bloodshot Records and Music City USA. I'll post more info on how to hear it, when it comes to me.
Andrew Bird Co-Chair Plastic Single Dance Delirium. Bloodshot, the concern just mentioned, is fixing to release a spiffy looking 45-RPM record of Andrew Bird covering me ("I'll Trade You Money for Wine") and, on the other side, me covering Andrew ("Core and Rind"). Nora O'Connor sings on both, a fantastic coincidence. I can't honestly vouch for how good my track is, but Andrew's cover of me is a real success -- you can hear it on Time.com, where it's streaming free right now.
Bonkers Lifelong Tour Soldiers On. I won't be at the Hideout on the coming Monday, but I will be various other places the next several days: Asheville, Brooklyn, Cincinnati, District of Columbia...does it go on all the way down the alphabet? Doubt it, but check the tour sidebar and see! I'll be quartet: Robbie Gjersoe, Shad Cobb, and the mighty Todd Phillips. I've listened to and loved Todd's playing since I was 13, and am thrilled to share the stage with him. Come on out and see how instruments sound played into mikes.
eurospill part 2
I had been in Scotland for two days when I started seeing “yes” stickers in apartment windows and on car bumpers and streetlamps. I asked our driver, a proud Scotsman engorged with fifteen centuries of esoteric Scottish military history, a merrie portly sexagenerian with an enormous feather jutting backward from his hatband at all hours, what it was all about. After he had reminded me that the independence referendum was a month away, and clarified that the angels were all solidly lined up on one side of the question, I asked him to describe the opposing view.
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this monday at the hideout
It's me and Jenny Scheinman. We'll play from her records and mine, and we'll probably do some tunes from the film we're working on, called Kannapolis. And as usual, country songs and fiddle music!
lou whitney, r.i.p.
Dave Hoekstra's and Mark Guarino's obituaries are good starting places if you're unfamiliar with Springfield, Missouri's tall man of the bass guitar and recording console.
Read Morehardly strictly
Y'all, my set on Sunday is at the Star Stage, at 11:45AM. Alongside me will be Jenny Scheinman, Robbie Gjersoe, and Missy Raines, a perfectly gender-balanced quartet (or as my wife said, "half menstruaters and half women-beaters"). It's a free festival and one of the world's finest, so if you miss it then I blame you!
eurospill part 1
My return from abroad has been met by loud cries: "Praeceptor! Speak of thy exploits and all grotesqueries witnessed!" In my endeavor to give a thrillingly rounded and complete picture (what used to be called "novelistic," now "TV-like") I will break up my memories into installments. This first will concern the topic, "What I Read" (rhymes with "dead").
Read Moresteve dawson's latest
I had the pleasure of contributing a small bit of harmony singing to my friend Steve's latest project, Funeral Bonsai Wedding, a couple months back; the record is released the 30th of this month. Somewhat in advance of that date -- this Friday -- Steve and the jazz players who accompany his songs on the record are doing a promotional
Read MoreAlso come to OTS
Turns out I was slightly sanguine in the previous post, as regards the Old Town School show this Saturday.
Read MoreCome to michigan
Your correspondent is unaccustomed to being away for so long, 5 weeks, but it has really helped, looking at this trip in retrospect, not to have had a day off.
Read Moresweden update
Hello from a sofa in Strathpeffer.
Read MoreEdinburgh vol. 2
Well that was quick. I'll be at the Trigg Underground on Wednesday August 20 in lovely Edinburgh. It's at 152 Dundas Street and I start at 8. Capacity is small so get there early if you can. Go, Internet, yay for 2014!
Edinburgh
The first week of this long jaunt has been fruitful and memorable, and many of the memories if not much of the fruit concern a crowded train ride with the Mekons through the midlands, bantering roisterously about ouds, Adolf Hitler, and cheese.
Read Morethe next month's dates abroad
Hi all,
I'm off to Portland and Seattle in the morning, for Pickathon and the Tractor respectively. With me will be a splendor-covered group of megapickers: Robbie Gjersoe, Aaron Till, Chris Scruggs, and, for Pickathon only, Don Stiernberg.
Then it's off to the UK for a series of dates with the Mekons or something very much like the Mekons.
Read Morehouston!
What's the matter with me? I need to get out of the business and just start busking. I'm playing at the terrific Mucky Duck of Houston tomorrow night (Saturday, 9:30 show) and never even posted it here. That's real stupid. I guess I'm counting on the usual solid turnout there, but you never know. Here's the link to advance tickets: http://tinyurl.com/Robbie-Fulks-July-26
this monday at the hideout
It's The Scavengers. A more-or-less yearly event with K.C. McDonough, Gerald Dowd, Robbie Gjersoe, and me.
Read Morethis monday at the hideout
Lou Reed died quite a while back, and I wanted to do something in his honor and memory but it took all these months to get a date together. That's mainly because Michael Shannon, who I asked to serve as Lou, singing the dark and the strange and the blunt and the funny and the heartfelt material from "The Blue Mask" (my fave Lou solo record), is "busier than a pair of jumper cables at a Puerto Rican picnic," as a comedian from the less ethnically sensitive 1970s used to say. This month Michael's holed up in Chicago while his talented wife works at Steppenwolf, and I nabbed him straight away. We played through the record's ten songs last night, and I can tell you for sure it's gonna be a hot one. Playing along: Alex Hall, Scott Stevenson, Jason Narducy, Grant Tye, me.
Because of Michael's celebrity, we're doing advance tickets on this one -- though at the usual low price of $10. To all the faithful who are accustomed to walk in at 6:55 and pull up a seat -- sorry! Get a ticket!
miles davis and tommy ramone
I wade hesitantly and maybe foolishly into the crowded waters of jazz commentary, as lightly armored with knowledge as I am, but I've been in the Miles mindzone all week, while preparing for my show last Monday. I of course welcome any correction or added insight from readers who are skilled jazz players or critics; I'm only, or should I say mainly, a fan, who occasionally dips a toe in as a practitioner.
Read Morethis monday at the hideout
Merle Travis vs. Miles Davis. Yes friends, Missouri meets Kentucky on Monday night at the Hideout, where the nine-pound hammer faces the nine-bar jammer; smoke smoke smoke takes on shoot shoot shoot; cool battles coal; So What locks "horns" with That's All; hard bop encounters dry bread; friendly goes against unfriendly.
Read Moreme and the mekons
In preparation for (also to raise money for) our trip next month to the U.K., where Jon Langford and Sally Timms and I et al are playing a bunch of dates, we'll be appearing Sunday at 7 at (where else?) the Hideout. If you like the thought of my going far far away for weeks on end, please stop by and contribute.
We'll also be playing a few tunes on WBEZ this Friday morning. Turn it on early and just let it stay on.