Robbie Fulks and Slaid Cleaves Hit the Old Pueblo

(photo: Robbie Fulks, photo by Andy Goodwin)

NOTE: We regret to say that because of the current health crises, the Robbie Fulks/Slaid Cleaves show has been postponed until further notice. We’ll post the rescheduled date as soon as we know it.

Robbie Fulks is stuck in traffic on I–395 in the heart of Washington, DC, when I reach him by phone. It’s a familiar condition for him: he’s been a road warrior musician for decades now, usually mounting small tours by car that take him from city to city in a well-worn car. He’s in no hurry, which suits his amiable, relaxed manner of self-presentation, but even so, he’s relieved to hear that the highways leading to Tucson are a lot less crowded.

I’ve seen Robbie Fulks play in Chicago a couple of dozen times now, for it seems that every time I hit town he’s on one stage or another in his hometown. The tour he’s on now is taking him out to different corners of the country, especially in the South, from which he’ll head to Tucson, arriving here to play on April 2 at 191 Toole. (Tickets are available here, at $25.00.) Sharing the bill with him will be the Maine-by-way-of-Austin singer Slaid Cleaves, whom Fulks characterizes as “a fine guitarist and poet.”

For his part, Fulks’s tour commemorates the 25th anniversary of the release of his debut album, Country Love Songs, which is now being reissued on vinyl. It’s country, for sure, if filtered through the likes of Joe Ely and The Clash, marked by exceptionally literate songwriting dealing with country tropes such as death, as with “She Took a Lot of Pills (and Died),” and heartbreak, as with “Tears Only Run One Way.” Greil Marcus, the rock historian and critic, has called Fulks’s later composition “In Bristol Town One Bright Day” a bona fide classic of Americana, and it’s a haunting piece for sure, one that could have been written in the Scottish highlands or Appalachians in the 1700s instead of bowing in with Fulks’s 2001 release Couples in Trouble.

“From going to nothing with all the attention given to Country Love Songs was both ego-enhancing and stressful,” Fulks says. “But it’s given me a way to live my dream, which is to play whenever I want. Now, 25 years later, I’m going back to my roots, so expect to hear a lot of bluegrass- and country-flavored stuff.” When the show starts at 8:00, he says, either he or Cleaves will hit the stage—they’ll alternate playing first and second—and then the other will follow, with a third set featuring both artists playing together. Whatever they play and in whatever order, expect an impressive night of fretwork and songcraft. For a taste of Robbie Fulks’s music, see a recent mini-set at Chicago’s Audiotree, which opens with the supremely lovely song “Alabama at Night.”

Category: The Scoop