Gone Away Backward

There should be a special award for this kind of high-level deployment of a musical ensemble. Fulks, a skilled acoustic guitarist and a singer possessed of a honeyed tenor voice, teams up here with Mike Bub, Robbie Gjersoe, Jenny Scheinman, and Ron Spears, who between them play a battery of acoustic stringed instruments and electric guitar, and also effect sublime vocal harmonies. Everyone is good at everything across the range of Fulks’ mostly original material, which celebrates the sounds of Delta blues, old-time and country music. Aside from the superb music-making, Fulks’ stunning weaving of words rewards close listening with familiar but vital lessons about love, betrayal, self-pity and self-discovery. ‘The Many Disguises of God’, Fulks’ reflection on the wonder of a newborn child, ventures beyond standard song structure and rhyme schemes. But most of his homages to the music he loves are so clear and true that they sound as if they’ve been around for generations. Maybe some of them will be.