A Conversation with Robbie Fulks (continued)

RF: And then there's a lot of like fake country here, I think, that I don't really get into very much. But just the whole punk country idea, I think--

PM: You were never a big fan of that, as I understand.

RF: No. I like some punk music, and I have some friends in that world, but I think as a mixture it just doesn't quite come off most of the time. I think it's interesting, but it doesn't really work. For some reason it's a really seductive idea, and people keep trying and trying and trying. But country, it's about great singing, and punk is not. You know?

[laughter]

RF: So right there, there's a problem.

PM: Well, on or off the record, what's your take on Neko Case?

RF: Well, on the record, totally, I think she's a great singer.

PM: Pretty amazing, right?

RF: Yeah. Yeah. And she's got--I mean, it's probably needless to say to anybody, but she's got a personality and a spirit that totally translate onto record and in performance. She's just so full of nonsense and fire, all that quality comes out in the way she approaches a song, I think.

PM: She opens her mouth and something amazing comes out.

RF: Yeah, I think it's beyond technique. She did a song on that Paycheck tribute I produced. And the guy at Sugar Hill that I was dealing with for the album said that he thought it was brave and individualistic that I would allow like some off-pitch notes to be retained in the ultimate master--

PM: [laughs]

RF: And I was like, "Well, it's not about..." I mean, I never even thought about that, and I don't know if she did, either.

PM: [laughs]

RF: It never really occurred to me. I went back and listened to it, and said, "Well, yeah, that note is a little sharp, or this one, but"--

PM: So?

RF: But I don't hear that at all when I listen to it. I just hear her singing really naturally and being really deep into to the song that she picked. So anyway--

PM: Yeah, I have a brother who's always saying, "Well, isn't that flat? Isn't that sharp?" I say, "Hey, there's more to life and more to music than simply being in tune."

RF: As [legendary songwriter and producer] Dan Penn said, "You're just singing the sad side of that note, that's all."

PM: Right.

RF: With some singers, though, I think you really are kind of attuned to that way of listening to it. But with a really good singer, it's an irrelevant and counter productive way to listen. You don't listen to Ray Charles that way. And I don't listen to many other really good singers that way, because they've got an ability that transcends pitch. Or a machine idea of pitch.

PM: Yeah. I thought "Countrier Than Thou" was super funny. Are you catching any flak or kudos on that one in the press, or those fan list things?

RF: No--you mean from the "Boston Jew" line?

PM: Yeah, for instance.

[laughter]

RF: Well, people love it when you cut up on Christians. So that hasn't gotten me any flak at all. But the "Boston Jew" line, surprisingly, no. And we've been sort of playing on that in the stage presentation. The song interrupts in the middle, and the drummer calls me from his cell phone as a character from the anti-defamation league, and he takes offense at the song.

PM: [laughs]

RF: It's a shtick built on that. But that's kind of a parody of nothing, I guess, because nobody has objected to it.

PM: Unbelievable.

[laughter]

PM: I mean, that one really stuck out like, "I can't believe he said that!"

RF: Yeah. I love the way it just kind of happened, and it's kind of bold, and then all of sudden it's bluegrass right at the next line, and the fiddle starts playing like nothing's happened.

[laughter]

PM: Yeah, that's a real work of genius, that tune.   continue

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