Burning down the house - 8/17/2005

The last time I had singer/songwriter/actor/writer/and all-‘round raconteur John Doe on the other end of a phone line, it was 1990 and he was calling from a Holiday Inn in the Midwest. His first solo album was about to be released, and he’d just finished shooting Without You I’m Nothing with Sandra Bernhard.

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Since that day, he’s wrapped up at least 38 more film and television roles; reunited with his pioneering Los Angeles-based punk band X for a number of tours, a studio album, a live album and a DVD; and released several solo albums, including Forever Hasn’t Happened Yet last March. “I just work my ass off,” he says. Some things never change.

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At the decidedly un-rock ‘n’ roll time of 10 a.m., Doe seems surprisingly alert for a musician who performed a late set at a club the night before. “I’m awake and living one more day,” he says, speaking animatedly via a crackling connection from Madison, Wis. The reason for the road trip — and the call — is a new release from X side project/alter-ego the Knitters.

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Named in mocking admiration of ’50s folkers the Weavers, the Knitters is a good-time country band formed in 1983 by Doe, Exene Cervenka, DJ Bonebrake of X, Dave Alvin of fellow L.A. rockers the Blasters, and Jonny Ray Bartel of the Red Devils. Originally intended for fun and as a vehicle for acoustic benefit shows, the group issued an album in 1985 consisting of X songs and select country classics. Poor Little Critter on the Road became an alt-country cult favorite and spawned a tribute album a few years ago. Yes, a tribute album to a side project’s record of cover tunes. Go figure. Such is the popularity of the Knitters.

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Twenty years later, the band issued The Modern Sounds of The Knitters (Zoe/Rounder Records) last month and Doe is taking the venture more seriously — well, a little more seriously. “It’s serious in its humor,” he says. “We take it seriously enough to put on a good show and do our thing, but yeah, it’s still for fun. We do have the advantage of being characters in the Knitters, because there’s less pressure. You can play dumb if you feel like it.”

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The cover art pictures the band in its Sunday best, looking like a still from “Hee-Haw” crossed with “American Gothic.” “We took the photos for the record at Sears. It cost $99,” he laughs, before he slips into a country twang. “Yep, the Knitters were goin’ down ta Sears to git their pitcher made.” The photographer had no idea she was shooting cult figures, a veritable who’s-who of the L.A. punk scene. “She didn’t give a shit. Funny thing is, it turned out perfect from the first picture. It’s got that stupid ‘back to school’ background.”

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On the disc, the band hoes down like X’s raging inbred country love child on drastically reworked favorites, deep-frying juicy versions of that band’s “Burning House of Love” and “In This House that I Call Home.” Covers as divergent as Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” and the Stanley Brothers’ “Rank Stranger” are also “knitted” into the mix. The collection deftly leaps the rustic fence between pure country and late-’70s punk, with the aching, bittersweet harmonies of Doe and Cervenka wrapping around each tune like a farmer’s gnarled hands around his plow handles. Yee haw, dude.

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“We’d do a Knitters tour of the West Coast every three or four years,” continues Doe. “And every time we’d do it, we’d add another couple of songs and say, ‘We’ve really gotta record this.’ So finally, we did.” The album was recorded live in the studio in a frantic three-day session, bristling with the immediacy of the moment.

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“I’m always writing,” concludes the prolific Doe in another fleeting moment of seriousness. “Got three or four new songs ready to go. Unfortunately, you can’t put records out too close to each other, unless of course you’re Ryan Adams.”