In the Spirit: All of the twang, none of the religion
8 hours ago • DOUG ERICKSON
Chicago-based singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks plays Madison at least once a year, giving his devoted fan base here easy access to his off-kilter brand of country music. He’ll be back Aug. 3 as part of the ninth-annual Sugar Maple Traditional Music Festival at Lake Farm County Park in Madison.
Fulks’ music both elevates country traditions and punctures them. He crafts wonderfully twangy songs, yet the lyrics often veer crazily from the genre’s more conservative leanings. Case in point: “God Isn’t Real,” his unambiguous ode to atheism.
I’ve been curious about the song’s back story since first hearing it on “Let’s Kill Saturday Night,” his 1998 major-label debut on Geffen Records. The song’s first two stanzas:
A world filled with wonder, a cold, fathomless sky
A man’s life so meager, he can but wonder why
He cries out to heaven its truth to reveal
The answer: only silence, for God isn’t real.
http://host.madison.com/wsj/lifestyles/faith-and-values/religion/in-the-spirit-all-of-the-twang-none-of-the/article_efc12044-d2b6-11e1-af0d-001a4bcf887a.html
(Graphic images in the youtube video.)
I still prefer Joe Hill's The Preacher and The Slave. It harnesses class consciousness to rejection of religion. Seems more productive to me.
