All aboard the Bloodshot Express, folks. Fresh from a brief stop in the no-man's land of major label incompetence and short-sightedness, this train is ported once again at your favorite station, and it's
headed straight for Hitsville, baby. So fasten your seatbelts: we may take a turn through some dark and unfamiliar territory along the way, but have no fear. You know what all the psychologists say about trains and tunnels.

"The Very Best of Robbie Fulks" is a runaway locomotive down the clacking tracks of the raucous, rangy career of one of America's finest songwriters. Don't let the title fool you (we all know what a smart-ass Robbie can be, after all), this is all new or unreleased material.

Featuring appearances from most of Robbie's favorite cohorts producers Steve Albini and Lou Whitney, bar band heroes The Skeletons, bluegrassmaestros Special Consensus, and many more), a very special duet with an unusually raunchy Kelly Willis, a gem of a "hidden" track, and liner notes that could only be penned by a man with some big-league cojones, this package is a true Fulk-narian delight, boasting cover art by Chicago's own country music cartoonist, Heather McAdams.

Robbie Fulks issued two full-length CDs on Bloodshot, 1996's "Country Love Songs" and 1 997's "South Mouth" before his Geffen-rel eased TMLet's Kill Saturday Night", and contributed tracks to our first two compilations, 1 995's "For A Life of Sin: Insurgent Country Vol.1 and "Hell-Bent: Insurgent Country Vol.2", as well as 1996's "Straight Outta Boone County". He sang lead on the widely lauded "Across the Alley from the Alamo" on the Pine Valley Cosmonauts! tribute to Bob Wills (1998). This year Robbie can be found on "Poor Little Knitter On The Road", our tribute to the insurgent country progenitors 
The Knitters (released October 5th). And watch for his tribute to yours truly on our upcoming fifth anniversary compilation with a song entitled, cheekily enough, "Bloodshot's Turning Five".

No folks, this train ride isn't for the faint of heart, the tourists, the philistines who prefer their musical ventures nice and smooth and easily consumed and just as easily forgotten. This is a rocky line traversed by the fellow traveler who likes the trip a little more rustic, rough and real. This is as good as country music gets. Sit back and enjoy the ride.
 

BLOODSHOT RECORDS 3039 W. Irving Park Rd. Chicago IL 60618-3538 USA www.bloodshotrecords.com
 
 
 

CMjNew Music Report
Recordnews
Section coordinated by Kelso Jacks

Alt-country singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks has teamed up with super-producer Steve Albini. The unlikely pair has sewn together 14 of Fulks's finest and rarest tunes to comprise The Very Best Of Robbie Fulks, which spans the performer's 10-year recording career. Albini, incidentally, had engineered one of Fulks's
earliest singles, as well as his Bloddshot Records debut, Country Love Songs. Geffen issued the twang darling's most recent album, teh 1998-released Let's Kill Saturday Night.