A Year in the Wilderness * by John Doe (CD, Jun-2007, Yep Roc Records)

Recorded, reportedly, in just two weeks,and while the results sound spontaneous, they don't feel rushed and the album is thankfully short on filler. These songs come across as personal, honest and affecting, Doe’s seventh solo CD ranges over boot-stomping garage rockers "Hotel Ghost" and lovely pop-leaning duets "Golden State” with Kathleen Edwards. It showcases Cash-like murder balladry "The Meanest Man in the World" and brings Exene Cervenka back into the fold, at least as a lyricist, in the wryly melancholy “Darling Underdog”. The disc opens with a brief piano interlude, the title track, then there’s a count, a beat, and Doe rips right into the rockin track, “Hotel Ghost”. This is a song that roars like a freight train, piano keys pounding, drums pushing, and, here’s the best part, Dave Alvin from the Blasters cranking a dirty, distorted roots rock groove. It’s the kind of cut that doesn’t really need lyrics to get by; it could stomp all over you with Doe singing “yeah yeah yeah” for the entire two minutes. But here’s the unexpected gift—the lyrics are pretty great. Doe, who probably spends more time in hotel rooms than is strictly good for him, imagines a spectral lover coming to visit in darkly, minimal lines like: “She sits upon my bedside and sheds her second skin / Tells me all her troubles and loneliness within / Then she shows me how to reach inside and caress her skeleton”. Not exactly, “C’mon baby, let’s go”, is it?
“Hotel Ghost” is one of a clutch of greasy rockers, a only a notch or two better than “There’s a Hole” or “Lean Out Your Window”, but still clearly the stand-out. It stands alongside an equal number of pop-country ballads, where Doe is assisted by a trio of leading ladies—Kathleen Edwards, Jill Sobule, and Aimee Mann. “The Golden State”, his duet with Kathleen Edwards is the best of these, her sweet, vibrato-touched harmonies and strong solo interludes providing a yin/yang balance that will remind you strongly of X.
It’s tempting to line-up the album’s songs along a rocker ballad axis, and indeed, most of them fit into one or the other bucket. Yet “Grain of Salt”, closing out the album, straddles both categories beautifully, linking introspective lyricism with an inflammatory guitar solo.

TRACK LIST:
1. the Wilderness
2. Hotel Ghost
3. the Golden State
4. Darling Underdog
5. A Little More Time
6. Unforgiven
7. There's a Hole
8. Lean Out Yr Window
9. Bog Moon
10. the Bridge
11. the Meanest Man in the World
12. Grain of Salt