Robbie Fulks

Robbie Fulks isn’t trying to become the king of country put-down songs, but on his new album, Georgia Hard, he offers what could be construed as a sequel to his infamous Nashville kiss-off, “Fuck This Town.”

Though he says the song is about the country music industry, and his new tirade, “Countrier Than Thou,” is about fans, he admits, “They’re definitely connected by my own wrathful contempt. They’re both putdowns of country-music appendages.”

While the fans and industry are appendages, Fulks is at the heart of country music, or would be, at least, in a Nashville less-driven by glossy pop. Still, delivering a sound at home in honky tonks from Bakersfield to Birmingham, Fulks’ Chicago exile is an apt illustration of how Music Row has changed.

That’s not to say Georgia Hard is alt.country. At least, Fulks doesn’t think so.

He mentions ’70s country stalwarts such as Gene Watson, Mel Street and Don Williams as influences, but other voices pop up—George Jones hovers over novelty song “I’m Gonna Take you Home (and Make You Like Me),” sung with Fulks’ wife, Donna. And Loudon Wainwright III could’ve penned “Countrier Than Thou”—which also takes a swipe at President Bush.

But the album’s biggest impact comes from a tune with no yuks involved: the hankie-puller, “Leave It to a Loser.” It’s a lovelorn slice of perfection just waiting to become a country classic—whether Nashville likes it or not.