A.J. Fullerton
The Forgiver And The Runaway
The second studio album from Colorado slide guitarist A.J. Fullerton, released March 26, 2021 on Vizztone. Produced in Toronto by Steve Marriner of MonkeyJunk, the record stretches Fullerton out from his Telluride-circuit roots-blues setting into a fuller band sound — pedal steel, harmonica, organ, the works. The release was originally slated for March 2020 and got pushed a year by the pandemic, which gave it the unusual position of being a "post-pandemic debut" for an artist who'd been gigging hard before everything stopped.
Fullerton wrote ten of the twelve tracks himself, with two co-writes from blues veterans JD Taylor and Colin Linden. The studio band is loaded: Glenn Milchem and Matt Sobb on drums, Jesse O'Brien on keys, Aaron Goldstein on pedal steel, Anna Ruddick on bass, and harmonica from Jake Friel and Paul Reddick.
Cool stuff:
- Debuted at #1 on the iTunes Blues chart the week of release and topped the Colorado Roots Report — a strong showing for a sophomore independent blues record
- Producer Steve Marriner is best known as a member of Canadian blues-rock trio MonkeyJunk and as a multi-instrumentalist who's played with Harry Manx and others
- Two of the songs are co-writes with Colin Linden, the longtime Blackie & the Rodeo Kings frontman and one of Canada's most-recorded sidemen (Bruce Cockburn, T Bone Burnett, Nashville TV soundtrack)
- Fullerton came up on the Telluride Blues & Brews festival circuit in Colorado and has won the International Blues Challenge "Gibson Guitarist Award" for his slide playing
- Tracked at Lincoln County Social Club in Toronto, a studio favored by Canadian roots artists for its analog setup
Spin it for: modern country-blues with a slide-guitar centerpiece and the kind of band Steve Marriner builds when he's producing other people's records.
Standouts: "Forgiver and the Runaway" · "Ramblin' Around" · "Reach for the Sky" · "Hard Times"
Sources: Rock and Blues Muse review · BandWagon Magazine · A.J. Fullerton official · Telluride Daily Planet · Paris Move review