SAN DIEGO — X will — and will not — mark the spot when John Doe headlines the 2022 edition of Adams Avenue Unplugged on April 30. And, no, that's not a Zen Buddhist koan along the lines of: "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
The veteran singer-songwriter will be performing without X, the pioneering Los Angeles punk-rock group he co-founded in 1977. He'll also be without the two-man rhythm section that will accompany him on his pending tour to promote his arresting new solo album, "Fables in a Foreign Land."
But he will probably include at least a song or two from X's repertoire here, albeit it in a stripped-down, one-man-band acoustic format — and with a key caveat or two.
"It will be just me and my lonesome guitar," Doe said, speaking from his home in Austin, Texas.
"And that will be good because then I can take a lot of requests and mangle songs I haven't played (solo) before! It's a good challenge because people love to see their singers screw up!"
The veteran singer-songwriter chuckled as he recalled some of the high-octane X classics that fans have shouted out for him to perform at his previous solo shows.
"The most frequent requests I get are to play 'Los Angeles,' 'Hungry Wolf' and 'Johnny Hit and Run Pauline," Doe said, chuckling again.
"My response is: 'Do you really think that would be rewarding to hear played on an acoustic guitar? I think not!"
What fans can expect to hear at his Adams Avenue Unplugged are a few more suitable X songs, material from his previous solo albums, a favorite by the likes of Merle Haggard, Joni Mitchell or Johnny Cash, and a sampling of selections from Doe's new solo album.
Due for release May 20 on Fat Possum Records, "Fables in a Foreign Land" is a low-key, largely stripped-down outing. It features some choice cameos by X singer (and Doe's former wife) Exene Cervenka, the band Garbage and Louis Perez of Los Lobos, who co-wrote the song "El Romance-O" with Doe.
Thirteen songs strong, the album finds Doe reflecting back on the '90s — the 1890s, that is — to create a rustic musical landscape. Its lyrics, while steeped in a time when traveling alone by horse across prairies was still common, were born during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Such heartfelt songs as "Never Coming Back," Traveling So Hard" and "After the Fall" explore the challenges of human existence. Doe also examines matters of faith during a rough-and-tumble time that, in some ways, is not all that different from today.
Asked if he considers himself to be spiritual, the 69-year-old troubadour replied: "I'm more spiritual than I was five or 10 years ago, and maybe that's just because of my age. You start to think there's some reason for things happening, whether that's true or not.
"I think that has impacted my music now because a lot of the situations and stories on this album are about survival and existential moments in people's lives. The thought of whether they are going to be on earth, or not, comes into play. And the song that most directly addresses that is 'See The Almighty,' because it finds our narrator wondering if he's been abandoned, and asking: 'Why me?' "
Doe laughed when informed his Adams Avenue Unplugged performance will take place in the Normal Heights United Methodist Church, where the stage is literally the pulpit.
"Thanks for the warning — I will take that into consideration in putting together my set list," he said. "I have played in a couple of churches before. One was in Portland and was wonderful, one in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco. The acoustics are generally great in churches."
Older and wiser
Might Doe's Normal Heights United Methodist Church solo gig be an ideal setting to shoot a "See The Almighty" music video?
"If you know a good videographer who's willing to come in and film for the hell of it, let me know," he said.
Doe chatted with the Union-Tribune recently for 45 minutes. Here are excerpts from that interview. They have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Your new album, "Fables in a Foreign Land," is a period piece. What drew you to the 1890s, specifically? And did you do any research, or did you just have an innate feel for what that era might have been like?
A: Well, it wasn't a concept I wanted to fulfill. It just naturally happened. And, yeah, I have been enamored by that era. Because the preindustrial era wasn't a simpler time, but the pace was slower and that appeals to me. And, certainly, that was underscored by the last two years with the pandemic.
Once I started working on the album, it became a matter of discipline. I had the opportunity to keep things in that (bygone) world and, hopefully, let other people experience things through the eyes of this narrator. I did not do an academic study. I did listen to some old music, The Mississippi Sheiks and things like that, just for sounds, rather than dissecting things. This is my version of what folk music is and folk was the first music I ever felt an affinity for as a kid.
Q: Who, specifically?
A: Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston and a guy from San Diego, actually.
Q: Sam Hinton?
A: Yes. His records were the first place I heard "The Barnyard Song" and one that I still do now, "The Big Rock Candy Mountain."
Q: Sam had an amazing double-life. He was a pioneering folk musician and the director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Aquarium here.
A: What an incredible guitar player, what an incredible singer and what an incredible musicologist he was. I take my hat off to him for really studying and delving into that rich musical mother lode. He was something else. I was 7 or 8 when my aunt sent me one of his albums, and he inspired me a lot.
Q: Sam died in 2009 at the age of 92. When listening to your new album, the phrase "older, but wiser" comes to mind. Two of the songs are slow waltzes and the album in general has a very relaxed pace a younger musician would be unlikely to achieve.
A: I certainly have more gratitude and empathy now, and I think that comes with age. I wish those were things people would have learned in the last couple of years, but it appears they've just gotten angrier and more divided. I wish I knew what It would take to (remedy) that. Does the 24-hour news cycle have to be stopped? I don't know.
Q: What would the 21-year-old John Doe think of your new album?
A: Of course, I want to say: "Yeah, I would have appreciated this then," but I'm not sure I would have. But I think, at 21, when I was getting into poetry, I would at least have appreciated the economy of the language in my lyrics on this album. And also the way I convey the discomfort and hardships that people were experiencing back in the 1890s, and maybe some of the humor, because there's a little humor in places on the album.
Q: The line "vengeful insatiable" in your new song "After the Fall" is a great turn of phrase.
A: It was based on the idea that here were people (in the 1890s) coming into a country that was so limitless, and all they could do is use it up. I think we still have some of that same mentality now. "Insatiable" seemed to be the capper, because nothing is never enough. But the album has some hope to it. In the last song, the narrator ends up at the Pacific Ocean and sees that it is an easier, kinder place to live. Scratch that; an easier, gentler place to live.
Adams Avenue Unplugged
With: John Doe, Sara Petite, Joey Harris, Grandpa Drew, Tormenta Rey, Yale Strom & Hot Pstromi, Israel Maldonado, Louis Valenzuela Trio, Nathan Raney, Rookie Card and more than 40 other artists.
When: Noon to 10 p.m. April 30
Where: Twenty restaurants, bars and cafes along Adams Avenue, from the Kensington Cafe in Kensington to Twiggs Bakery in University Heights, with a majority of the venues in Normal Heights.
Tickets: Free for all performances except John Doe ($25), who performs at 7 p.m. at Normal Heights United Methodist Church, 4650 Mansfield St., Normal Heights. Tickets for Saturday's 21-and-up VIP Beer & Food package are $19.
Phone: (619) 282-7329
Online: adamsavenueunplugged.com
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