Friday, June 8, 2007

ROBBIE FULKS"Revenge!"Yep Roc

ABOUT THREE-FOURTHS of the way through his new live album, "Revenge!," Robbie Fulks goes off on a long monologue, saying: "So many times you get a live record, and it's a [expletive] rip-off is what it is. They do all these old songs, and the recording is not as good, and then you get all these people going 'Whoo' over it, like you people are doing." A lot of concert albums are overpriced, under-produced stalling tactics designed to keep fans happy until the artist has something new to say. Alt-country hero Fulks can make fun of such releases, because "Revenge!" avoids those traps.

For one thing, the double-CD package is being sold at a single-CD price. For another, 12 songs appear on a Fulks album for the first time, and six of those are Fulks compositions, either newly written or snatched from the discard pile. And the performances are strong. One disc, called "Standing," was recorded with the singer's usual roots-rock quartet; the other, "Sitting," was cut with an all-star string band including Flatlanders guitarist Robbie Gjersoe and Irish accordion virtuoso John Williams.

The proceedings open with "We're on the Road," a funny, appropriately juvenile song about an all-male band on tour. In the middle of it, Yep Roc's president, Glenn Dicker (impersonated as a mustache-twirling villain by guitarist Grant Tye), calls up and demands a new album "fast and cheap." So Fulks delivers live versions of such old favorites as "Let's Kill Saturday Night" and "The Buck Starts Here," such impressive new songs as "You Don't Mean It" and "On a Real Good Day," and such unlikely covers as Cher's "Believe" and the Country Gentlemen's "Bluebirds Are Singing for Me."

-- Geoffrey Himes

Appearing Saturday at Jammin' Java.

Listen to an audio clip of Robbie Fulks