Gone Away Backward (LP)

In the mid-1990s, Chicago-based artist Robbie Fulks became known as the sharp-as-a-tack, wry genius of the alternative country scene. Today - after ten releases spanning various shades of twang (Country Love Songs), somber yet popconscious roots-rock (Couples In Trouble), and even Michael Jackson covers (Happy) - he leaves behind the amplifier-and-drumkit-driven songwriting which defined his mode and returns to the folk and bluegrass sounds that once captured the imagination of a little boy who first picked up a banjo at age seven.

Recorded and mixed by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago, Gone Away Backward finds Fulks re-evaluating his roots and lamenting the decline of the small-town and rural America in which he was raised. It's as hopeful as it is dark, modern as it is historical, foreign as it is familiar. It's auto-biographical and all-embracing storytelling. City and country.

"Fulks is comfortable with the sum of country music, from the goofiest lark to the most funereal dirge."
- AV CLUB