Robbie Fulks, Redd Volkaert

Robbie Fulks was born in York, Pennsylvania, grew up in North Carolina and Virginia, and now lives near Chicago. He has released 10 solo records on the Bloodshot, Geffen, Boondoggle (self), and Yep Roc labels, including the influential early alt-country records Country Love Songs (1996) and South Mouth (1997), and the widely acclaimed Georgia Hard (2005). Radio: multiple appearances on WSM's "Grand Ole Opry"; PRI's "Whadd'ya Know"; NPR's "Fresh Air," "Mountain Stage," and "World Cafe"; and the syndicated "Acoustic Cafe" and "Laura Ingraham Show." TV: PBS's Austin City Limits; NBC's Today, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and 30 Rock. His songs have been recorded by Sam Bush, Kelly Hogan, Sally Timms, Rosie Flores, John Cowan, and Old 97s.

His writing has appeared in GQ, Blender, the Chicago Reader, DaCapo Press's Best Music Writing anthologies for 2001 and 2004, and A Guitar and A Pen: Stories by Country Music's Greatest Songwriters. As an instrumentalist, he has accompanied the Irish fiddle master Liz Carroll, the distinguished jazz violinist Jenny Scheinman, the bluegrass band Special Consensus, and the New Orleans pianist Dr. John. He tours yearlong with various configurations and plays a weekly residency at the Hideout in Chicago. His 11th record is 2013's Gone Away Backward, a meditative bluegrass-inflected song cycle recorded and mixed by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago.

"Fulks is 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."
- New York Times

"Fulks is 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. "
- Journal of Country Music

"America's most unjustly unsung singer-songwriter"
- SPIN

"Chicago's most fertile musical mind...so good, he's scary"
- Chicago Tribune


Robbie is performing as a duo with Redd Volkaert, who succeeded Roy Nichols in Merle Haggard's backing band, and is among the country's top Telecaster guitar slingers. Volkaert has won a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance.