Music Library: Ringo Starr, Rita Lee, RJD2, Robbie Basho, Robbie Fulks, Robbie Robertson, Marty Robbins

Ringo Starr - "It Don't Come Easy." Tell us about it, Ringo.

Rita Lee - Build Up (1970). Os Mutantes vocalist out on her own. Unfortunately, this is mostly syrupy and lacking in the Mutantes insanity.

RJD2 - "Exotic Talk" and "A Beautiful Mine." Excellent hip-hop/glitchy instrumentals. The latter is the music from the Mad Men theme.



Robbie Basho - The Seal Of The Blue Lotus (1965) and The Grail And The Lotus (1966). Fingerstyle guitarist with a heavily Indian-classical bent who recorded for John Fahey's Takoma label. Psychedelic stuff, and a big influence on Six Organs Of Admittance's Ben Chasny.



Robbie Fulks - Country Love Songs (1996), South Mouth (1997), Let's Kill Saturday Night (1998), The Very Best Of Robbie Fulks (1999), Couples In Trouble (2001), 13 Hillbilly Giants (2001), Georgia Hard (2005), Revenge! (2007), 50-vc Doberman Sampler (2009), and Happy (2010). Fulks is the definition of a cult artist, a guy with an album called The Very Best Of Robbie Fulks that is not a greatest-hits album, but collection of new songs and EP-only releases. He winds up somewhere between a smartass and a hardcore troubadour. He is funny and sarcastic and serious and insightful, sometimes all in the same song. I love his music. Country Love Songs and South Mouth are both smartass country albums, straight up, with the former's best track being "She Took A Lot Of Pills (And Died)" and the latter dropping a not-so-much-love letter to Nashville on "Fuck This Town." Let's Kill Saturday Night is a part-power-pop/part-country album with the excellent "God Isn't Real" on it.  Very Best is an excellent genre-crosser with "That Bangle Girl" on it. Couples In Trouble is indie rock, while 13 Hillbilly Giants covers obscure country songs. Georgia Hard is a countrypolitan country-plus-strings experiment. Revenge! has live versions from all over Fulks' career, and it has an electric side and an acoustic side. 50-vc Doberman Sampler collects 12 songs from an online-only 50-song release. It's not so great, unfortunately. At least, it hasn't grown on me. Happy covers Michael Jackson and Jackson 5 songs all through a number of genres. It is quite good.



Robbie Robertson - Robbie Robertson (1987). Ugh. Doesn't seem possible this was the work of the man who wrote "The Weight" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."

Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs (1959). Excellent work from Mr. Robbins, who I've covered elsewhere on this blog.