Robbie Fulks sings country, sometimes with a wink, sometimes with a smirk, and sometimes with a straightforward honesty that catches you off guard. The New York Times has described him as “a gifted guitarist, a soulful singer with an expressive honky-tonk tenor, and a natural performer. But what really sets him apart is his songwriting, which is one part artful country, one part artful sendup of country, and one part a little of everything else . . . It’s sort of country meets David Lynch.” According to the Journal of Country Music, he’s a “natural and gifted songwriter with a withering wit and an encyclopedic understanding of classic country song forms; he also happens to be one hell of a guitar player.” Robbie has released eleven albums in his twenty-five-year career, augmenting his whip-smart originals with covers of country classics and Michael Jackson hits. Tonight he and guitarist Rob Gjersoe, his longtime duo partner, will regale us with numbers from his upcoming album Gone Away Backward.  As tonight's special guest, they are joined by the glamorous & gloriously talented singer/violinist Jenny Scheinman.

He got his start in 1987 as vocalist and guitarist for the Grammy-nominated bluegrass band Special Consensus, formed his own rock band, the Trailer Trash Revue, and finally went solo, doing time in Nashville, but based mainly in Chicago. The Washington Post calls him “one of the great honky-tonk voices of his generation” – in fact, he has the whole singer-songwriter toolkit, the voice and the wit, the songwriting skills and the guitar chops. For an entertaining evening of country-plus, catch Robby Fulks at the Freight.

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Listen to a track from Robbie Fulks: