Kimon Kirk has been a fan of alt-country troubadour Robbie Fulks since the late ’90s. So when veteran session guitarist Duke Levine finally made the formal introductions a few years back, it was a fortuitous occurrence indeed.
“Robbie and I had both relocated to Los Angeles before the pandemic, and it turned out we lived down the road from each other,” says Kirk, who’s toured and recorded with the likes of Aimee Mann, Alejandro Escovedo, Grant-Lee Phillips and Sarah Borges.
Kirk had the idea for “Dashboard Hula Doll” for several years, seeing it as an homage of sorts to NRBQ’s Al Anderson. But he was struggling with the lyrics and finally got up the gumption to ask Fulks, an Anderson fan and collaborator.
“In less than a day, Robbie had the whole plotline and took the song in a direction I’d never considered—that of a hapless fellow whose wife has left him with nothing but the family car and the hula doll affixed to its dash,” says Kirk. “We knew Duke would be ideal to play on the track. As luck would have it, he was in L.A. for a day on his way home from an Australian tour with Bonnie Raitt.”
With Levine in the mix, Kirk and Fulks recruited bassist Paul Bryan (Aimee Mann) and drummer Jay Bellerose (Joe Henry, Robert Plant). They tracked the song live at Sunset Sound, nailing it on the second take. The video was directed by Jessie Carter Clavin of Bleached, a longtime fixture in the L.A. music scene.
“Jessie had the idea to film in the desert with a rented convertible,” says Kirk. “After that footage was completed, we shot the rest at my home. Robbie came over and played my guitar and sang.”
Adds Fulks, “Anyone who’s been abandoned by his family and gone on a suicidal car journey with a dancing decorative ornament will certainly find much to enjoy in this song.”
We’re proud to premiere the video for Kimon Kirk’s “Dashboard Hula Doll” (featuring Robbie Fulks).
—Hobart Rowland
