Robbie Fulks is at the top of his game

After two decades of making some of the finest folk and country music around, Robbie Fulks knows exactly what brings him the most joy. It’s not bigger crowds at shows, the spikes in album sales, or piles of positive press. “You know what makes me really happy? I can choose from among most of the musicians that I really want to play with in the world,” Fulks says in an interview from his home in Chicago. “I can call ‘em up and have ‘em go out and do dates with me — especially guys in the bluegrass field. Guys that I’m really itching to play with and that will bring different things to the music. That variety keeps me going.”

Fulks’ Rolodex is fatter than ever thanks to his longevity and skill. At 53 years old, he has built a reputation as one of the sharpest songwriters in roots music, as well as an inspired guitar player and engaging bandleader. His catalog of albums is as diverse as it is deep, with bluegrass breakdowns and traditional twang nestled alongside crunchy pop-rock, and 2010’s Happy: Robbie Fulks Plays the Music of Michael Jackson.

After a frustrating stint as a songwriter in Nashville, Fulks established himself in the mid-1990s with two pitch-perfect solo albums released by roots-music powerhouse Bloodshot Records (1996’s Country Love Songs and 1997’s South Mouth). His latest efforts are more mellow; 2013’s Gone Away Backward and this year’s Upland Stories are sparse, quiet collections that put the focus on Fulks’ cozy voice, nimble picking, and brainy tales of life and labor in rural America.

Upland Stories has earned glowing reviews (“more evidence that Fulks is one of our greatest living songwriters,” said the Chicago Reader), which he attributes to the life he has led and the niche he fills. “The records are ... a little bit more personal,” Fulks says. “They’re a little less like anything else out there. I tried to think a little bit harder over the last two records about what I can do that nobody else can do. I think part of the answer is that, at age 53, it’s just specific life experience that allows me to offer something a 25-year-old couldn’t offer.”

Fulks isn’t eyeing anyone else in his field, though. He’s comfortable in his skin, and with his songs. “I’ve generally done better the less I think about that stuff,” he says. “At a certain point you realize, I’m not going to catch on like One Direction or the Eagles caught on. It sounds corny and overly idealistic to say but I just do the thing that I do to my satisfaction and try to get better at it. If somebody wants to listen, that’s great.”