ROBBIE FULKS
''REVENGE, DISC ONE''
MAY 1 2007
84:32
DISC ONE
1. We're On The Road/3:30
2. You Shouldn't Have/4:15
3. Fixin' To Fall/2:54
4. Mad At A Girl/3:41
5. The Buck Starts Here/4:32
6. Goodbye, Good-Lookin'/3:09
7. Busy Not Crying/3:15
8. You Don't Mean It (soundcheck)/3:56
9. Rock Bottom, Pop. 1/2:48
10. Cigarette State/4:41
11. Let's Kill Saturday Night/3:27
DISC TWO
1. Introductory Remarks by Amy Warren/0:17
2. That's A Good Enough Reason/4:09
3. Believe/3:44
4. In Bristol Town One Bright Day/5:39
5. I Wanna Be Mama'd/6:16
6. Fake Jews Everywhere/The Death of Enthusiasm/2:53
7. I Like Being Left Alone/3:14
8. Bluebirds Are Singing For Me/3:33
9. On A Real Good Day/5:08
10. President Garfield's Hornpipe/Suza/4:42
11. Kelly Hogan's Looking Hot/Closing Remarks/0:52
12. Away Out On The Old Saint Sabbath/3:57
Gerald Dowd /Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Casey Driessen /Fiddle, Guest Artist
Mike Fredrickson /Guitar (Bass), Vocals
Robbie Fulks /Audio Production, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals
Geroald Dowd /Drums
Robbie Gjersoe /Guitar
Kelly Hogan /Vocals
Mike Fredrickson /Guitar (Bass)
Don Stiernberg /Mandolin, Vocals
Joe Terry /Guest Artist, Keyboards
Grant Tye /Guitar (Electric), Vocals
John Williams /Accordion
REVIEW
by Mark Deming
On the opening cut of Robbie Fulks' album Revenge, Fulks and his band are interrupted while singing about the dubious joys of life on tour by a phone call from one of the head honchos at Yep Roc Records, who informs Fulks that the label wants a new record, but it has to be delivered fast and cheap since his previous effort didn't move that many units. All of which serves as a curious but entertaining set-up for this double-disc live album, divided into a "Standing" set with a full electric band and a "Sitting" acoustic set featuring minimal accompaniment. Exactly who Robbie Fulks is wreaking vengeance upon (beyond the larger music-buying public who have failed to make him wealthy and famous) is never made clear, but this album is an accurate re-creation of the "Live Robbie Fulks Experience" for the fans at home. Fulks and his band are in superb form on disc one, especially guitarist Grant Tye and drummer Gerald Dowd, sounding tight and sympathetic as they swing from the weepy "The Buck Starts Here" to the swinging "Cigarette State" and closing out with the high-test rock & roll of "Let's Kill Saturday Night." The acoustic disc is no less accomplished, if a bit less user friendly, as it features both a Cher cover ("Believe") and an enthusiastic celebration of misanthropy ("I Like Being Left Alone"), though Fulks' duet with Kelly Hogan on the Carter Family's "Away out on the Old Saint Sabbath" is beautiful stuff. On a good night, Fulks is one of the most exciting and entertaining singer/songwriters to emerge from the alt country scene with a band to match, and Revenge documents two very good shows with Fulks and his compatriots firing on all cylinders, even if his curiously smug sense of humor intrudes upon the proceedings every once in a while.
BIOGRAPHY
by Steve Huey
Singer/songwriter Robbie Fulks was one of the more heralded talents in the alternative country movement, displaying an offbeat, sometimes dark sense of humor in many of his best moments. As time passed, Fulks moved away from the country twang of his early work and into a crunchier roots rock hybrid. Fulks divided his childhood between Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina, and received his schooling at Columbia University. He moved to Chicago in 1983 and first served as vocalist and guitarist in bluegrass band the Special Consensus, appearing on their Grammy-nominated 1989 album A Hole in My Heart. He later performed in the musical revue Woody Guthrie's American Song and formed his own rock band, the Trailer Trash Revue, with whom he cut a locally popular single, "Little King" b/w "Jean Arthur."
Fulks got his first significant exposure via Bloodshot Records' 1994 compilation Insurgent Country, Vol. 1: For a Life of Sin, which included his track "Cigarette State"; the 1995 follow-up, Insurgent Country, Vol. 2: Hell-Bent, featured Fulks' "She Took a Lot of Pills (And Died)." Both cuts were produced by Steve Albini, who also helmed Fulks' Bloodshot debut, Country Love Songs, in 1996. The album received highly positive reviews and featured backing from roots rockers the Skeletons, as well as former Buck Owens steel guitarist Tom Brumley. The follow-up, South Mouth, took a similarly retro-minded approach, drawing from classic honky tonk and Bakersfield country. With a growing cult reputation, Fulks earned a major-label shot with Geffen, but many critics felt that his 1998 label debut, Let's Kill Saturday Night, undermined the organic strengths of his previous work with overly slick roots rock production. A merger between Universal and PolyGram shortly after the release of Let's Kill Saturday Night led to a gutting of the Geffen artist roster, and the album died on the vine as Fulks found himself without a label.
Fulks opted to start his own label, Boondoggle Records, distributed by his friends at Bloodshot, and launched it with The Very Best of Robbie Fulks, a facetiously titled collection of demos and unreleased recordings. In 2001, Fulks followed with 13 Hillbilly Giants, in which he covered a bakers' dozen songs of the 1950s and '60s, and later that year he issued his most ambitious set to date, Couples in Trouble, a bleak but compelling collection of original songs about a variety of failing relationships that found Fulks adding new dimensions to his interest in rock and left-field pop. In 2005, Fulks signed to the roots-oriented Yep Roc label and dug back into his country roots with his first album for the label, Georgia Hard. It was followed by the live collection Revenge in 2007.
''REVENGE, DISC ONE''
MAY 1 2007
84:32
DISC ONE
1. We're On The Road/3:30
2. You Shouldn't Have/4:15
3. Fixin' To Fall/2:54
4. Mad At A Girl/3:41
5. The Buck Starts Here/4:32
6. Goodbye, Good-Lookin'/3:09
7. Busy Not Crying/3:15
8. You Don't Mean It (soundcheck)/3:56
9. Rock Bottom, Pop. 1/2:48
10. Cigarette State/4:41
11. Let's Kill Saturday Night/3:27
DISC TWO
1. Introductory Remarks by Amy Warren/0:17
2. That's A Good Enough Reason/4:09
3. Believe/3:44
4. In Bristol Town One Bright Day/5:39
5. I Wanna Be Mama'd/6:16
6. Fake Jews Everywhere/The Death of Enthusiasm/2:53
7. I Like Being Left Alone/3:14
8. Bluebirds Are Singing For Me/3:33
9. On A Real Good Day/5:08
10. President Garfield's Hornpipe/Suza/4:42
11. Kelly Hogan's Looking Hot/Closing Remarks/0:52
12. Away Out On The Old Saint Sabbath/3:57
Gerald Dowd /Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Casey Driessen /Fiddle, Guest Artist
Mike Fredrickson /Guitar (Bass), Vocals
Robbie Fulks /Audio Production, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals
Geroald Dowd /Drums
Robbie Gjersoe /Guitar
Kelly Hogan /Vocals
Mike Fredrickson /Guitar (Bass)
Don Stiernberg /Mandolin, Vocals
Joe Terry /Guest Artist, Keyboards
Grant Tye /Guitar (Electric), Vocals
John Williams /Accordion
REVIEW
by Mark Deming
On the opening cut of Robbie Fulks' album Revenge, Fulks and his band are interrupted while singing about the dubious joys of life on tour by a phone call from one of the head honchos at Yep Roc Records, who informs Fulks that the label wants a new record, but it has to be delivered fast and cheap since his previous effort didn't move that many units. All of which serves as a curious but entertaining set-up for this double-disc live album, divided into a "Standing" set with a full electric band and a "Sitting" acoustic set featuring minimal accompaniment. Exactly who Robbie Fulks is wreaking vengeance upon (beyond the larger music-buying public who have failed to make him wealthy and famous) is never made clear, but this album is an accurate re-creation of the "Live Robbie Fulks Experience" for the fans at home. Fulks and his band are in superb form on disc one, especially guitarist Grant Tye and drummer Gerald Dowd, sounding tight and sympathetic as they swing from the weepy "The Buck Starts Here" to the swinging "Cigarette State" and closing out with the high-test rock & roll of "Let's Kill Saturday Night." The acoustic disc is no less accomplished, if a bit less user friendly, as it features both a Cher cover ("Believe") and an enthusiastic celebration of misanthropy ("I Like Being Left Alone"), though Fulks' duet with Kelly Hogan on the Carter Family's "Away out on the Old Saint Sabbath" is beautiful stuff. On a good night, Fulks is one of the most exciting and entertaining singer/songwriters to emerge from the alt country scene with a band to match, and Revenge documents two very good shows with Fulks and his compatriots firing on all cylinders, even if his curiously smug sense of humor intrudes upon the proceedings every once in a while.
BIOGRAPHY
by Steve Huey
Singer/songwriter Robbie Fulks was one of the more heralded talents in the alternative country movement, displaying an offbeat, sometimes dark sense of humor in many of his best moments. As time passed, Fulks moved away from the country twang of his early work and into a crunchier roots rock hybrid. Fulks divided his childhood between Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina, and received his schooling at Columbia University. He moved to Chicago in 1983 and first served as vocalist and guitarist in bluegrass band the Special Consensus, appearing on their Grammy-nominated 1989 album A Hole in My Heart. He later performed in the musical revue Woody Guthrie's American Song and formed his own rock band, the Trailer Trash Revue, with whom he cut a locally popular single, "Little King" b/w "Jean Arthur."
Fulks got his first significant exposure via Bloodshot Records' 1994 compilation Insurgent Country, Vol. 1: For a Life of Sin, which included his track "Cigarette State"; the 1995 follow-up, Insurgent Country, Vol. 2: Hell-Bent, featured Fulks' "She Took a Lot of Pills (And Died)." Both cuts were produced by Steve Albini, who also helmed Fulks' Bloodshot debut, Country Love Songs, in 1996. The album received highly positive reviews and featured backing from roots rockers the Skeletons, as well as former Buck Owens steel guitarist Tom Brumley. The follow-up, South Mouth, took a similarly retro-minded approach, drawing from classic honky tonk and Bakersfield country. With a growing cult reputation, Fulks earned a major-label shot with Geffen, but many critics felt that his 1998 label debut, Let's Kill Saturday Night, undermined the organic strengths of his previous work with overly slick roots rock production. A merger between Universal and PolyGram shortly after the release of Let's Kill Saturday Night led to a gutting of the Geffen artist roster, and the album died on the vine as Fulks found himself without a label.
Fulks opted to start his own label, Boondoggle Records, distributed by his friends at Bloodshot, and launched it with The Very Best of Robbie Fulks, a facetiously titled collection of demos and unreleased recordings. In 2001, Fulks followed with 13 Hillbilly Giants, in which he covered a bakers' dozen songs of the 1950s and '60s, and later that year he issued his most ambitious set to date, Couples in Trouble, a bleak but compelling collection of original songs about a variety of failing relationships that found Fulks adding new dimensions to his interest in rock and left-field pop. In 2005, Fulks signed to the roots-oriented Yep Roc label and dug back into his country roots with his first album for the label, Georgia Hard. It was followed by the live collection Revenge in 2007.
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