Fullbright Puts his Faith in the Fellowship of a Song
Photo by Jackson Adair
Oklahoma native, John Fullbright, was first propelled upon the Americana music scene as an original member of the well-loved Turnpike Troubadours, and later established himself firmly as a gifted lyricist with the release of two solo albums, notably Grammy nominated From The Ground Up in 2012. After the release of his 2014 sophomore album, Songs, Fullbright vanished abruptly into the belly of the Tulsa music collective for eight quiet years, only to re-emerge recently with a new solo album, The Liar, scheduled for release September 30th, and an evolved approach to songwriting and music production that relies on collaboration and community rather than heavy handed singer-songwriter perspective.
Fullbright's journey towards releasing that hyperfixated creative control seems to have organically begun during his time spent in Tulsa hauling his electric piano from modest venue to venue, performing both under his own name, as well as routinely sitting in as support in the bands of others.
“It’s been a process of learning how to be in a community of musicians and less focusing on the lone, depressed songwriter… just playing something that has a beat and is really fun,” Fullbright said. “That’s not to say there are no songs on this record where I depart from that, because there are, but there's also a band with an opinion. And that part is new to me.”
The recent passing of Idaho born, Oklahoma raised Steven Ripley, credited with first coining the term "Red Dirt" in reference to the local Oklahoma music scene, resulted in an impromptu dash by Fullbright to get Liars recorded at Ripley's farm-housed studio before the property potentially changed hands, as Ripley's widow Charlene briefly considered selling the northeastern Oklahoma estate after losing Steven. Fullbright quickly mobilized a roster of who's who in the Oklahoma music industry encompassing Jesse Aycock, Aaron Boehler, Paul Wilkes, Stephen Lee, and Paddy Ryan, as well as enlisting a little help from a few more friends whom stopped to lend their talents during the mere four days it took the group to finish the songs and track the album, all under the expert direction of engineer Jason Weinheimer.
“It was such a collaborative thing with some really cool voices,” Fullbright said, expressing surprise at the ease of the process. “It's just like playing music in Tulsa. Everybody kind of does whatever they do, and it works.”
The hasty rush into the studio meant Fullbright arrived with a mixed bag of some old, some new, and some unfinished songs, making his newfound cumulative approach to musical creation both crucial to the process and evident in the endearing final product. The result is an album that holds true to John's authentic expression while allowing for the contributions of the others in a relaxed and inclusive way. This stands in stark contrast to our formerly rigid, technically-minded Fullbright who said of himself previous to the shift, "What rules didn’t I have? Even like, how many syllables were in a line, I had arbitrary rules for. So much of that has gone out the door, and I’m so much happier. It’s really just the idea that you don’t have to do this by yourself. It’s so much more fun to collaborate.”
Many of the songs themselves revisit Fullbright's previous conversations with God either directly or indirectly that we've been privy to on past albums via John's songwriting. The title track, “ The Liar," approaches the topic with less bitterness than might be evident in 2012's "Gawd Above." “The Liar's" tongue-in-cheek plea for a whiskey drenched/good behavior pact between Fullbright and a distant grand omnipotent comes on the heels of the more somber, reflective, and fundamentally human track dubbed "Stars," in which John recalls, and explores a bit further, the beliefs he was immersed in as a child but eventually left behind. In that same vein, the predestined love theme of the track "Paranoid Heart" nods to a pale, but lingering belief in grand design discreetly embedded in the well-crafted line, "maybe reckless hearts come in pairs; maybe that's the only shake we'll ever get to call fair."
Fullbright himself finds his favorite album moment in the initially bluesy love ditty, "Safe to Say," which begins with an understated birth but rises to culmination on the breath of a gospel choir style crescendo supporting an increasingly agonized confession of the heart's surrender to love.
Between the breaking of the fourth wall in the album opener "Bearded, 1645" and the cheery, light-hearted, and accusative commentary of the final track "Gasoline," the album collectively feels somehow both deeply personal to Fullbright and yet simultaneously seems to be held at a relaxed and comfortable arm's length. The essential truths are expressed crookedly within cleverly folded phrases, suggesting John's lyrical target may be to lie in order to tell the truth. If that's the case, the question begged would be: Is John, by his own estimation, the storied liar?
When pressed on that, a forthcoming Fullbright said, “What I love about songwriting is you're the hero in your own story, most of the time, and I think that's very human,” he said. “But short answer: yes.”
The Liar is scheduled for release on September 30th, and will be available on most streaming platforms. For more on Fullbright and to find tour dates, visit the artist's website at https://www.johnfullbrightmusic.com/
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