Robbie!

For my 72^nd birthday, my sweetie pointed the Jeep east to head for Lake Orion, an hour and a half drive from here.  This town, in the far north ‘burbs of Dee-troit, near Pontiac, is pocked by many little lakes that many live around.  They’re nice lakes, too.   Bob Seger lives less than 20 miles from the Lake Orion venue.  The goal of the trip was seeing Robbie Fulks at 20 Front Street, which might have been a machine shop once upon a time but now is a fine coffee shop and a performance space greatly enhanced by some curved heavy wooden pews that I’m sure started in a church somewhere (1).  The nearby lakeside restaurant (Orion Boat House (2)) and luxurious country B’n’B (3) made the outing all that much more special.

How did this son of York Pennsylvania become a leading light in bluegrass?  When Robbie was 13, his dad took a position at a Quaker school in Durham, North Carolina and settled outside of Creedmoore,  just between Durham and Chapel Hill (6).  That’s an area known as the “Research Triangle”, with Winston-Salem as the 3^rd corner, full of eggheads but with enough bluegrass and old country music for young Robbie to cut his chops.  Dad was also a major musical influence, a bluegrass musician himself, who had Robbie playing banjo three years before he took up guitar.  With his genes and his deep interest in reading, he proved Ivy League smart and went to Columbia.  The NYC music scene proved more attractive than the classroom.  He spent a lot of time trying to sign up for lessons with Dave van Ronk in Greenwich Village, never connecting with him by enjoying many opportunities to play there.  He left Columbia after 2 years, hung around NYC for another year, then split for Chicago where he joined a bluegrass band, Special Consensus.

He finally got a record contract in the late 90s, but still had to spend 3  years in Nashville writing songs for a Music Row publisher to make ends meet.   They never sold a song of his, and Robbie documented an experience in a song (7).  During those years, Robbie fronted a series of hard-hitting country-rock bands across America and beyond, his blistering guitar chops and madcap levity (the latter frequently testing, if not violating, standards of taste) winning him a modest-sized but ardent fan base.  Robbie’s groups geared themselves to the alt.country base, satisfying a small bunch, but seldom selling 10,000 albums.  In 2009, Robbie got sick of it and decided to return to his bluegrass and country roots, performing solo or in small groups.  That’s how we always see him.

He seems a man at peace these days.  He wasn’t expecting that move to LA to take, but seems to love it there.  Of his two boys, one is a math whiz able to criticize his dad on his economic decisions, while his younger is a musician.  His current tour has him playing with all sorts of great musicians, from Bill Kirchen to Mary Gauthier.  Maybe he’s 60 and never been on Ed Sullivan, but I think he knows how good he is and he is happy to display that for his public.  Please join us.

References

1. 20 Front Street. https://www.20frontstreet.com

2. Orion Boat Hpuse.  https://lakeorionboathouse.com

3. Maple Cove Bed & Breakfast & August House. https://www.maplecovebandb.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=GBP

4. Robbie Fulks setlist.  20 Front Street @ 20 Front Street Lake Orion Michigan.  https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/robbie-fulks/2024/20-front-street-lake-orion-mi-6b557e5e.html

5. Robbie Fulks. Discogs.com.  https://www.discogs.com/artist/898909-Robbie-Fulks

6. Tony Scherman.  Robbie Fulks is Bringing it All Back Home.  Stereophile 6/6/23.  https://www.stereophile.com/content/robbie-fulks-bringing-it-all-back-home

7. Robbie Fulks – Topic.  Fuck This Town.  YouTube https://youtu.be/Yi7SHB9ifKk?si=dy4gVZZCfz2ZfHmd