Despite his punk country popularity, Fulks actually started out as a folk and bluegrass musician who was raised in the Blue Ridge of Virginia and the Piedmont of North Carolina. And after performing in the club scene in Greenwich Village and attending Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk, joined Special Consensus.
The Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist is built to keep you informed on all the best songs and albums coming out right here, right now in country and roots music. It’s available on most all streaming formats, or you can just use the song, artist, and album recommendations.
Ever since being officially shuttered in October of 2021, and then being purchased by Exceleration Music on October 23rd, 2021, fans of Bloodshot Records and the artists once signed to the label have been wondering what the future may hold. Up until January of this year, there was little to no word…
30 years ago, the independent record label Bloodshot Records was founded in Chicago by Rob Miller and Nan Warshaw, and quickly became one of the focal points and instigators of the independent country music revolution we’re currently enjoying the fruits of today.
For your listening consideration is this slightly curious, but certainly seductive offering from a duo that once was, isn’t really any more, but nonetheless taps into something eternal in musical truth to offer an album that takes you back, and entertains wickedly. It’s called ‘Memories To Burn.’
It’s easy to soliloquize the expansive mountains or the rolling sea. It’s another to find inspiration in the expansive stillness of America’s midriff. But as Brennen Leigh can attest from her intimate acquaintance, you’ll never believe the brilliance of it unless you’ve beheld them with your own eyes.
Country music doesn’t deserve Robbie Fulks, and Robbie Fulks doesn’t deserve the perilous and unjust trappings of country music. This guy should be designing jet engines or transplanting hearts or something. Yet here he is spinning hillbilly tales for penny fractions on Spotify, though we’re not complaining.
Blooshot Records co-owner Nan Warshaw is officially out at independent record label Bloodshot Records in the aftermath of a sexual harassment scandal. This is the news coming from the label Saturday afternoon (3-9) as the company prepares to trek to SXSW this upcoming week where they have been one of the fixtures of the event.
The newest additions to Saving Country Music’s Top 25 Playlist start with the opening tracks to a couple of cool new records. John R. Miller and the Engine Lights have a new album out called ‘The Trouble You Follow,’ and the witty and true “Holy Dirt” tops the newest incarnation of the playlist
Let’s be honest, pairing up Robbie Fulks with the sister of Jerry Lee Lewis and having Fulks write songs from her perspective seems like such a strange concept for an album, it’s hard to conceive of releasing such as thing beyond maybe some quirky passion project with a pressing of 250 units for Record Store Day.
It’s bad enough there are so many pop stars out there pretending to be country artists these days. But lately there has been a big rash of impersonator accounts targeting some of your favorite country artists, including ones reaching out to fans with private messages to solicit individuals for money, credit card numbers, etc.
Just what 2017 has in store for us in the country music department remains to be seen. But we do know about what to expect in the release department for at least the first quarter of the year, while rumors abound about the big projects that could come to light later in 2017. Here’s a run down of what we know, what we think we know, and what we would like to believe.
For years these artists have been banging on doors, chipping away at walls, and slowly but surely they have been winning more and more acceptance from the mainstream industry as viable artists who’ve been systematically overlooked. The DIY spirit that governs these artists and labels has been at the very core of this movement.
On Tuesday morning (12-6) the nominees for the 2017 Grammy Awards were announced, and Sturgill Simpson’s ‘A Sailors Guide to Earth’ is right up there with Adele, Beyonce, Drake, and Justin Bieber competing for the Album of the Year. And he just might win it. The album is also up for Best Country Album
As Robbie’s career arc has continued into his fifties, he’s favored more and more the bluegrass style of his Virginia and North Carolina roots compared to more traditional country and folk. Add on top of that his acute sense of dynamics and an unexpected adeptness at showmanship, and Robbie Fulks makes the case for himself as our generation’s John Hartford.
It took the death of four people and dozens of others injured after a drunken madman ran his car through a crowded downtown Austin street in 2014, as well as a completely clusterfucked permitting system by the City of Austin so mired in red tape it takes months of dedicated manpower to actually put on a show, but it appears that SXSW has finally reached a point where the annual event has stopped growing uncontrollably.
A bunch of lucky bastards will be congregating in southern Florida on Saturday, February 6th at the Magic City Casino in Miami for the Shore Leave Showdown, which dubs itself as a one-day “Southern Outlaw” festival, and includes one beefy lineup, not limited to The Mavericks, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Dale Watson, Robbie Fulks, Sarah Gayle Meech, The Kentucky Headhunters, and many more.
Who hadn’t thought that when Han Solo was outrunning Imperial starships in the Millennium Falcon—not the local bulk-cruisers mind you, I’m talking about the big Corellian ships now—that he wasn’t booming a little Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Billy Joe Shaver? Remember, Han was a smuggler, so it’s only fitting he’d find a hankering for music that many a moonshine runner would blare.
Fulks is revered for his songwriting and playing that veers from bluegrass and traditional country stylings into folk music sentiments and themes. Robbie puts on a show these days that is something the whole family can enjoy. But when Fulks uttered “goddamn” incidentally in the lyrics of one of his songs, it stimulated a quite a row in the land of 10,000 lakes.
Pickathon is the roots music experience like no other. It offers one of the most forward-thinking lineups in the independent festival circuit, is two steps ahead in featuring artists that are on the verge of becoming the next big thing, and presents the artist in some of the most unique settings to be found. Even if you can’t make it to the Northwest extremity of the country next weekend….
Oh you poor little non-SXSW goers, you’re social network feeds are about to get positively inundated with South By Southwest information, riddling your psyche with scores of free music events you’re unfortunately missing out on, resulting in an experience for you somewhere between the teasings of a cruel temptress, and Chinese water torture. Here’s a list of artists that all happen to be attending SXSW…
2013 has been self-proclaimed by Saving Country Music as the “Year of the Songwriter,” and this list of candidates for SCM’s Album of the Year reflect that dynamic of an elevated bar of songwriting excellence that these 8 artists have set. There is no arbitrary number of slots for candidates for this award. Nominees are chosen only if they have a legitimate chance of winning…
This is a guest post from Austin-based singer-songwriter Slaid Cleaves. Slaid recently was featured on Saving Country Music after making some critical comments about modern country music in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, and he wanted an opportunity to elaborate on his statements. Slaid’s latest album, the critically-acclaimed “Still Fighting The War” was released in June.
With a gift for poetry like Townes Van Zandt, and a penchant for the whimsical, progressive approach to bluegrass akin to John Hartford, Robbie Fulks releases a stunningly entertaining, brilliantly-balanced, deep, yet instantly-engaging comeback album called Gone Away Backward through longtime associates Bloodshot Records.