*** Robbie Fulks

THE VERY BEST OF

(Bloodshot)

Robbie Fulks shot to alternative-country infamy with "She Took a Lot of Pills (and Died)" on his debut album, Country Love Songs (Bloodshot), and "Fuck This Town," an angry screed against Nashville's country-music business that appeared on South Mouth, his second album for Chicago's Bloodshot label. Fulks's underground popularity led to a deal with Geffen and last year's Let's Kill Saturday Night, a failed bid for mainstream acceptability. While we're waiting for the next album of new fulkin' tunes, we get to chew over the misleadingly titled The Very Best Of, which doesn't cull the "hits" from South Mouth and Country Love Songs but does give us rare tracks from Norwegian C&W labels, self-produced albums, and an obscure film soundtrack, including a duet with Kelly Willis ("Parallel Bars") and a tune that shows Fulks to be a credible bluegrass picker ("Hamilton County Breakdown"). The disc is crammed with blazing musicianship and Fulks's smart-assed humor, which rears its head most fittingly on "Roots Rock Weirdos," a scathing send-up of the alternative-country fans who support artists like Fulks that ends with a voice intoning, "I preferred your earlier work."

-- J. Poet