Exclusive Song Premiere: Robbie Fulks — "Pacific Slope"

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the premiere of "Pacific Slope," a new song by Robbie Fulks. The track is from Fulks' new album, Gone Away Backward, which was released August 27 via Bloodshot Records. “'Pacific Slope' is an odd fiddle tune with some dramatic arpeggiations reminiscent of 'classical' music," Fulks says. "I got it from my friend Al Murphy, the Iowa fiddler, who recorded it on his Through The Fields collection of Midwestern fiddle music. Beyond that, you'll have to ask Al. "Robbie Gjersoe and I played it (he the middle part, I the heads in and out) on our Martin and McAlister dreadnoughts, respectively. To my dismay, when I went into the studio that morning, the neck of my McAlister, which I'd left on its stand overnight, had radically shifted, and it seemed hopelessly unplayable. I messed with the truss rod until the action was to where I could pick it real light without unwanted noises. After playing through the song, I took it straight to the repair shop.” 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. After 20 years on the road, in 2008 Fulks began performing in unplugged, small-group settings. Regular sessions at the Barbes in Brooklyn and an ongoing residency at Chicago’s Hideout gave him wider freedom to experiment and improvise, and offered intimacy and challenge with a wide variety of musicians. He learned a few hundred new songs and, in the process, developed fresh angles on his own narrative voice. Excited and freshly focused, he began writing music for a new project. Gone Away Backward is available everywhere, including bloodshotrecords.com. For more about Fulks, visit his official website.