(BHM) GRAMMY-nominated singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks announces his new studio project, and 17th solo album, Now Then, to be released September 5 on Compass Records. Fulks offers an extraordinary new collection of songs, aiming his penetrative eye at the past with wonder, amusement, and anger, all the while finding fresh creative vistas to explore as only he can.
Fulks continues his long-standing exploration of different sounds, concepts, and genres on the new album, with 12 songs that span folk to power pop, jazz to old-time country. The restless spirit that has long defined Robbie Fulks's exceptionally diverse three-decade career is on full display here, threaded throughout by his novelist's eye for lyrical detail and the perspective that comes from the realization that the time behind you spans a greater distance than what lies ahead. His first complete collection of songs written since moving to Los Angeles in 2019, the album features contributions from a cast of musicians including jazz violinist Jenny Scheinman, keyboardist Wayne Horvitz (John Zorn, Bill Frisell), drummers Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello) and Jay Bellerose (Robert Plant, Alison Krauss), bassist Paul Bryan (Aimee Mann, Jeff Parker), guitarists Duke Levine (Bonnie Raitt, Peter Wolf) and Kevin Barry (Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash), and accordionist Pepe Carlos (La Santa Cecilia).
The album's lead single "Workin' No More Blues" is a new folk reflection on a world that demands greater conformity by the day. By way of a back story, Fulks explains: "Something distressing happened to me and I wrote 'Workin' No More Blues' fast in the immediate heat." Driven by Fulks's finger-picked acoustic guitar and bathed in ethereal backing vocals and country-tinged steel guitar, the song is at once comic and tragic: "Now I'm weary of those around me/And I know for sure they're sick of me/They say I won't do as I'm told/They say I've lost the thread/I'm too old."
Fulks offers a glimpse into the making of the album in an exclusive conversation with his good friend, the legendary actor, comedian, songwriter, and musician Michael McKean
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