Robbie Fulks & Linda Gail Lewis: Wild! Wild! Wild!
The fact that Wild! Wild Wild! lives up to its title is clearly no accident at all. Fulks and Lewis, two performers who are best described as both brash and unbridled, show no restraint when it comes to a set songs hewed from vintage trappings. Lewis is well seasoned in that regard; the younger sister of the madman himself, Jerry Lee Lewis, she’s known for singing up a storm. The sentiments she conveys bring similarities to those expressed by Loretta Lynn or Tammy Wynette, and here, in cahoots with Robbie Fulks, the combination brings to mind their pairings with Conway Twitty and George Jones respectively. Fulks fits those male models to a tee, and he’s enough of an upstart and an able enough country crooner to provide a solid counterpoint. The fact that he wrote most of the material further affirms his confidence and cool.
Fulks has always been best known as an insurgent of sorts; a brooding, anarchistic singer/songwriter who made it clear he was never completely comfortable with the trappings of the standard country motif. Here however, he appears happy to take on a more traditional persona, whether providing the mournful sway on the tellingly titled “I Just Lived a Country Song” or imbuing tears in his beers via the singularly striking “That’s Why They Call It Temptation.”