Robbie Fulks
Thursday, June 9, Grey Eagle

I still don’t know quite what to make of Robbie Fulks. It doesn’t help that my introduction to him was his contribution to Bloodshot Records’ kiddie album The Bottle Let Me Down: Songs For Bumpy Wagon Rides. That song, “Godfrey,” is a small gem of the sick-n-twisted variety: it’s a sing-along about a “sickly, unemployed, amateur children’s magician” who has “wonders up his sleeve” and eventually gets hauled away to prison for being a bit too touchy-feely. Not too many artists have the gall to put a song about a pedophiliac on a children’s album, but Fulks does. I found the tune hilarious/horrifying enough to learn more about the man behind it, and wasn’t surprised to find that Fulks has something of a reputation for songs that are dark, comic, and/or darkly comic.

Next I spied his 2001 roots-rock release Couples in Trouble in a used bin, and took a chance on that. The songs here were more dark than comic: Couples in Trouble is a meditation on all the ways love can go wrong ... and love can go wrong in an awful lot of ways. A moody album, not near as fun as “Godfrey,” Couples in Trouble nevertheless convinced me that Fulks was more than a novelty artist. There was good stuff here, and thick.

Now comes Georgia Hard, a countrypolitan release that finds Fulks returning to a bit of the twang of his youth: it was as an alt-country artist in the mid-90s that Fulks first made his name. Georgia Hard starts out straight ahead, with a four-song country set culminating in the fine title track. Then things get a little crooked. “I’m Gonna Take You Home (And Make You Like Me)” is a garrulous barroom duet that’s more skit than song; “Countrier Than Thou” finds Fulks in full satiric mode, taking dead aim at hard-country wannabes. After that, Fulks calms down again, delivering songs ranging from a bit too breezy to impossibly sad; many of them sound like they’d be perfectly at home on a Music Row pitch tape. “If They Could Only See Me Now” is a timeless tale of revenge and regret, and it doesn’t take too much imagination to see George Jones scoring a late-career hit with the careful-what-you-wish-for single, “You Don’t Want What I Have.” Listen to these and you have to wonder if Fulks is tired of being the well-respected insurgent underdog and is ready to sell a few songs to Kenny Chesney and retire in style.

You also have to wonder if Fulks is taking himself seriously. Georgia Hard contains some classic country songs, but few are delivered without a wink. Add up those winks — an exaggerated lyric, a vocal smirk — and in time it’s hard to tell the honest from the ironic. Take the last line from the song “Each Night I Try:”

And though I’m never gonna drink my teardrops dry

Each night I try, each night I try.

That’s a great country lyric, one that ought to be played on jukeboxes around the land. Problem is, Fulks can’t quite deliver it with a straight face. It would work better if he could.

Tickets are $8 and the show is at 9 p.m. Call 828.232.5800 for more info.

Jim Payne
Tuesday, June 14, Soul Infusion

Holy moly! This column was signed, sealed, and delivered when I noticed that Jim Payne was playing Tuesday at the Soul Infusion.

“Jim Payne!,” I said. “Who the hell is that?”

“The Buddy Rich of funk,” replied The Jazz Times.

“A master of funk,” echoed John Scofield.

“Seriously funky ... the Boss!,” said Fred Wesley of the JB Horns.

“That’s funk times three,” I said. “Damn.”

“Damn straight,” said a little voice inside my head. (I’ve got to cut down on the coffee.)

And so I soon learned that Jim Payne — author of the funk drumming Bible Give the Drummer Some! and producer on the first two Medeski, Martin, and Wood albums — was recording and touring with a trio that includes Jerry Z on organ and Bill Bickford on guitar. Their first release, Sensei, hit No. 33 on the jazz charts; the follow-up, Energie, promises more mesmerizing funk. They hit Sylva Tuesday night for a weeknight jam. The show starts at 8 pm and advance tickets are available. Call 828.586.1717 for more info.

Also Playing

• Hope Massive, Soul Infusion, 6/10

• Rilo Kiley, Orange Peel, 6/10

• Sidney Barnes, Westville Pub, 6/11

• Willy Porter, Grey Eagle, 6/11

• Monsters of Japan, Stella Blue, 6/11

• Jem and the Hypertonics, Jack of the Wood, 6/11

• Ashley Chambliss, Soul Infusion, 6/11

• John Brown, Diana Wortham Theatre, 6/12

• Brazilian Girls, Orange Peel, 6/14

Three Good Songs on Bloodshot’s kiddie compilation The Bottle Let Me Down: Songs for Bumpy Wagon Rides

1. “Red Red Robin,” Rosie Flores

2. “Sad & Dreamy (The Big 1-0),” Alejandro Escovedo

3. “Don’t Wipe Your Face On Your Shirt,” Cornell Hurd Band

They Said It

“Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis.”

— Jack Handey