"There is such a straight line from Little Rock to this record."
That's Oklahoma singer-songwriter John Fullbright talking about his new album "The Liar," his first in eight years, which was released to glowing reviews last month. The Arkansas connection comes thanks to Jason Weinheimer, owner of Little Rock studio Fellowship Hall Sound, who produced "The Liar" over a span of four days at a studio in rural northeastern Oklahoma.
Weinheimer and Fullbright, a former member of Turnpike Troubadours, have been pals for about six years, and the producer has worked often with members of Fullbright's band, which includes Jesse Aycock, Aaron Boehler, Paul Wilkes, Stephen Lee and Paddy Ryan.
"Jason has made a million records with all of these guys who are going to be in the band," Fullbright says earlier this week from his home in Tulsa. He returns to Little Rock today for a show at Stickyz Rock 'n' Roll Chicken Shack.
"It's going to be almost like a homecoming," he adds.
"The Liar" is really good, but that should come as no surprise to fans of the 34-year-old Fullbright, a gifted Americana songwriter whose 2012 debut album, "From the Ground Up," was nominated for a Grammy and whose follow-up, "Songs," earned him comparisons to Neil Young and Townes Van Zandt.
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The new album is his third studio LP and features 12 tracks of rootsy wisdom anchored by Fullbright's piano — think James McMurtry and Leon Russell hanging out at Cory Brannon's house — and propelled by his band. There are traces of blues, country, gospel and rock, and Fullbright's songs touch on themes of love, faith, drinking and the healing that comes from making music.
Fullbright, who grew up in the small town of Bearden, Okla., can be tongue-in-cheek funny, as on the title track, when he asks God to grant him not serenity or wisdom but whiskey; can nail a spine-tingling ballad like "Stars" and then rip through "Poster Child," a Tom Waits-like saloon stomper. "Social Skills" is a somewhat lighthearted but nevertheless spot-on depiction of battling anxiety with a drink or two (or maybe something stronger); "Where We Belong" is a loping, classic country ode to good love and there's the emotional, powerful "Paranoid Heart" that seems to find an extra gear about halfway through. The album's strongest track might be the opener, "Bearden 1645," which starts simply with Fullbright, his piano and voice before being joined by the band and blossoming into a near-epic.
To produce the project, Weinheimer showed up at the Oklahoma studio with some equipment and recorded as band members played in a living room area of the studio, Fullbright says.
"So much of it was recorded live. It wasn't like we were doing things one at a time."
The sessions also were a departure from how Fullbright usually works when making his own albums.
"A lot of the stuff I came in with wasn't finished," he says. "Collectively, the band would go, 'What if it was like this,' and that was cool. So much of it worked so well."
While it has been eight years since his last solo record, Fullbright kept busy recording on other sessions, touring as a sideman and bandleader and immersing himself in the fertile Tulsa music scene, which he credits for his growth as a musician.
"Even just playing with all these bands around Tulsa, it changed the way I play piano," he says. "I've learned a lot. In one week, you can play in a country band, an Americana band, a funk band, a jam band. That really broadens your perspective about what your instrument is, what it's for and how to play it."
John Fullbright
- 8 p.m. today, Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 107 River Market Ave., Little Rock
- Admission: $25-$150
- Information: stickyz.com | (501) 372-7707