My Top 20 Robbie Fulks Songs: I'll Trade You Money for Wine (#10)

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How about all this great music I'm remembering and seeing?! I close out with the great alt-country singer/songwriter Robbie Fulks as I look at my 20 favorite songs of his. Here comes the top ten. #10: I'll Trade You Money for Wine Simple plot: man gives up his lucrative career to be a bum. And oh, how Fulks details that simple plot in this magnificent song. Set in Nevada, a former business big wig gave all of his success and riches up ("wild were the nights when I was rolling, boys, no hunger unsatisfied, feared was my name in Elko County, boys") to stand on a street corner and beg for money so he can buy booze. His philosophy is simple: "It's a short life and a long time under ground." Some are sympathetic ("the banker, he spares a quarter for my cup, his trouble's deeper than mine") and others would rather preach to him. He scoffs at their attempt to convert him: "I never burdened God on your account, don't waste your prayers on me." Amid all the bitter, caustic attitude of this man is a marvelous fiddle solo that only reiterates the narrator's tortured soul. Fulks should have won a Grammy for this song. I'll Trade You Money For Wine Written by Robbie Fulks From Gone Away Backward, 2013 Here's a superb version of Robbie singing the song solo: