Ahhhh.......

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Concert number 14 in the year broke another drought. When I saw Dale Watson on March 5 it had been six months since I had seen him last. And, after a three-month absence, I returned to a Robbie Fulks concert last night (April 2). Ahhhhh......... Fulks' new album, Upland Stories, was released on April 1. He began the tour supporting the album at the Warehouse in Carmel, Indiana (a suburb of Indianapolis). The venue was perfect for listening, which is what the half dozen tunes from the new album require. Upland Stories is Tragic Songs of Life-like depressing. The song that opened the show's first set, "Never Come Home," is about a man with brain cancer who returns to his family's home to die, discovering how terrible a mistake that was. The lyrical brilliance of Robbie Fulks is on full display in this sad tale of family members who get drunk and talk bad about the protagonist as he lies dying within earshot, with his final thought being, "I should have never come home." The next song in the set was "Sarah Jane," which is a quiet love song. When Fulks premiered the song last April he said the tune is "pretty much me." From there he launched into selections from his discography, singing "It's Always Raining Somewhere" with drummer Gerald Dowd (great to see Gerald back on the road with Robbie, as Robbie has toured for the past three years as a bluegrass act [meaning no drums]), and the quartet that backed him (steel guitar, upright bass, fiddle, and drums) provided a full, rich song to favorites such as Tim Carroll's "Every Kind of Music But Country," the opening song on Fulks' 1996 debut album Country Love Songs. The first set closed with one of Fulks' best-loved and best-known songs (thanks to Sam Bush's cover), "Where There's a Road." He opened the second set with just fiddler Shad Cobb onstage to do "I'll Trade You Money For Wine," one of the depressing-but-not-as-depressing songs from the previous album Gone Away Backward, and the new album's comic relief song "Katy Kay," about a man who has two women in his life, "A bag of bones and a diamond ring to siphon all my pay, and a sweet thing down on the edge of town to love my nights away." The chorus concludes with, "If I didn't love Katy Kay I'd probably have to shoot her." The highlights included "Cigarette State," with its slap at formulaic country singers ("Alabama's grand -- the state, not the band") and extended jam where everyone (including Dowd on drums) took a solo, another comical chestnut, "Try Leaving," "Where There's a Road" (one of my favorite Fulks songs), and the encore of "Fare Thee Well, Carolina Gals," where Fulks and fiddler Shad Cobb left the stage near the end to sing in the aisle to the quiet, attentive, and appreciative full house. The good news (happy birthday to me!!) is that I get to see Robbie five more times this month. The bad news is I have to wait a week and a half until the next show. That's okay. He's worth the wait.