Ep. 115 - ROBBIE FULKS ("Alabama at Night")

The two-time Grammy nominee and alt.country pioneer joins us to discuss his career as an eclectic and fiercely independent singer songwriter. EPISODE DETAILS: PART ONE Scott and Paul chat about the classic conundrum of getting annoyed when your favorite artists get too popular, but also getting annoyed when people don't catch on their greatness. PART TWO - 8:20 mark Paul plays a friend's brand new single for Scott and the guys talk about Pearl Snap Studios, Patreon, and how a lucky listener can win a free hat. PART THREE - 12:59 mark Robbie stops by Songcraft World Headquarters to chat about one of his earliest songs--a super twisted parody of a Red Sovine classic; why he never moved to Nashville; how he got a record deal by writing a manifesto; why putting an album's songs in the proper sequence is important; the song he wrote for his celebrity crush; the concept album he never made; the insider details he learned from Tom Brumley; and which of his songs he doesn't want to play anymore. Plus, Robbie performs live and acoustic! ABOUT ROBBIE FULKS Singer, recording artist, instrumentalist, composer and songwriter Robbie Fulks’s most recent solo album, Upland Stories, was named among the year’s best by NPR and Rolling Stone, and was nominated for a Best Folk Album Grammy. Additionally, his “Alabama at Night” earned a Grammy nomination for Best American Roots Song. Though his tastes are wide-ranging, Fulks is steeped in country, bluegrass, and folk traditions with an often irreverent sensibility that can range from hilarious to heart breaking.  Robbie’s first two albums, Country Love Songs and South Mouth, helped define the “alternative country” movement of the 1990s, while subsequent releases found him exploring pop and rock territory. His recent work is more reflective and acoustic-oriented, though he occasionally diverges to pursue eclectic projects such as his 2018 duet album with Linda Gail Lewis, Wild! Wild! Wild! Robbie’s songs have been covered by Sam Bush, Kelly Hogan, Andrew Bird, Mollie O’Brien, Rosie Flores, John Cowan, Pinmonkey, Lone Justice, Old 97s, and others. Additionally, his writing on music and life has appeared in GQ, Blender, the Chicago Reader, DaCapo Press’s Best Music Writing anthologies, and other outlets. Besides country and bluegrass music, Robbie is fiercely fond of—in his own words—Charles Mingus, P.G. Wodehouse, quantum mechanics, his wife Donna, comedy in almost all forms, cooking, swimming laps, the past, Arthur Schopenhauer, Universal horror movies, his grandson and even his sons, coastal towns in the off-season, and rye whiskey, though in nothing like that order.