X's John Doe Gets Back To Music's Basics

By John Roos

Relevancy is a tricky thing. Especially in the music industry. For those entangled in the business side of the equation, it’s popularity, sales, and airplay that are defining factors. But what about the music, and those who create it? How do the artists themselves—particularly those who’ve been at it for decades—define their relevancy, and how important is it to them?

I posed these questions to veteran singer-songwriter John Doe during a recent phone interview. Doe, born John Nommensen Duchac and best known as a founding member of the pioneering punk-rock band X, still tours and records with the original X, as well as maintains a solo career that began in 1990 and includes a new album under the John Doe Folk Trio moniker titled Fables in a Foreign Land (Fat Possum Records.) The trio just played in San Francisco at the esteemed Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, and Doe performs as a solo act this Friday evening at Hopmonk Tavern in Novato.

“Well, you can get different opinions on how relevant we (X) are, but we still have something to say and offer creatively,” said Doe, now 70 and based in Austin, Texas. “We refuse to be an oldies act. Artistically, we’re making music with passion and purpose that still has power and an edge. So why not? It’s just kind of what we do. It’s our career.”

To his point, both X and Doe have recorded albums of new material within the last few years. In addition to the John Doe Folk Trio’s Fables, X released the potent Alphabetland three years ago, the group’s first album in 27 years. According to Doe, the band plans to release another album next year with eight songs already in the can. X – also featuring vocalist Exene Cervenka, lead guitarist Billy Zoom, and drummer DJ Bonebrake--continues to tour regularly while delivering the same intense fury the quartet unleashed back in their late-1970’s groundbreaking heyday.

Released last year, Doe’s Fables in a Foreign Land is a desolate-feeling, dusty concept album with 13 songs set in the pre-industrial 1890’s. His folk trio, featuring Doe on guitar, bassist Kevin Smith, and drummer Conrad Choucroun, delivers a stripped-down acoustic sound with occasional splashes of color courtesy of Texamaniacs’ accordionist Josh Baca, Austin fiddler Carrie Rodriguez, and Spanish-language vocals from Los Lobos’ Louie Perez. In songs such as “The Cowboy and the Hot Air Balloon,” “Where the Songbirds Live,” and “Destroying Angels,” the subject matter centers on simple people living in simpler but harsher times, offering a unique take on who we are and how differently we live our lives today. (“Destroying Angels” first appeared as a 2018 collaborative single between the rock band Garbage and Doe with Cervenka. Doe and Garbage’s Shirley Manson had written the murder ballad when their bands toured together a few years ago. Check out the “Destroying Angels” video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9c94XSfVfA)

“This particular period of time really fascinates me, both the mental and physical struggles that were part of everyday life,” said Doe, whose creative influences range from treasured musicians/songwriters Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie, and Bob Dylan, to authors Michael Blake and Douglas C. Jones--the latter two’s writings being the primary inspiration behind Fables subject matter. “The main purpose in life was merely to survive, much like it was for many of us during the COVID-19 pandemic, which I thought was an interesting though-line as we were making this album. These days, we have all these modern conveniences like cell phones, laptops, social media, and so on, but do we realize what we’ve had to give up? A lot of our personal freedoms and privacy, inch by inch, are being stripped away that we may never get back.”

Doe approached Fables in a Foreign Land sonically for the most part with a less means more sensibility.

“Some of the songs were born just jamming with Kevin on my front porch, and a lot of it was recorded live in a room with just a few takes,” added Doe. “I’ve grown to dislike more and more unnecessary instrumentation. It just seems that every song has to have a guitar solo and keyboard fills just to sound palpable. I’m interested more in songs and stories than the sound of that performance. My intent was to be more organic and economical with the production so the songs had room to breathe.”

While Doe certainly cares about the present social and political landscape, he avoids sounding preachy with his in-between song banter onstage. Historically, he has let his songs do the talking, particularly when addressing the social inequities experienced in X’s hometown of Los Angeles back in the late-70s and 80’s. Such timeless gems as “The Unheard Music,” “Los Angeles,” “The World’s a Mess, It’s in My Kiss,” “The Have Nots,” “The New World,” and “See How We Are,” among numerous others, still have bite and resonate because the gap between those folks living at the top and bottom has only widened over the subsequent years.

While Doe may share his point of view lyrically, he insists he’s not about to tell others how to think.

“Our listeners have to do some work, too,” said Doe, who’s also been a band member of the Flesh Eaters and Knitters, and had minor acting roles in numerous television series and movies, including Law & Order, Roswell, the Bodyguard, Roadhouse Hero, and Pure Country. “Exene and I were just talking about this the other day. We tell a story, we set a scene, but you have to fill in your own blanks, and you have to participate. I have a lot of respect for (outspoken) artists like Billy Bragg, Sinead O’Connor, and Michael Franti, and I too have my opinions about social issues. I do feel there are definitely social ills right now that I want to point out but I don’t expect people to follow (blindly) what I have to say. I just try to address them kind of sideways.”

*KC Turner presents John Doe performing solo Friday evening at Hopmonk Tavern, 224 Vintage Way, Novato; (415) 892-6200. New York-based Americana singer-songwriter Mya Byrne opens at 6 p.m. Outdoors, all ages. $37-$59. www.hopmonk.com.