One of punk rock’s most iconic voices has made the leap into the folk-music world.
X—a band with a fast-and-loud legacy of punk-rock anthems that began with “Nausea,” “Johny Hit and Run Paulene” and the chord-burning banger “Los Angeles” in 1980—has called it a career, but vocalist/bassist John Doe hasn’t. Doe traded the bass for acoustic guitar and began the John Doe Folk Trio a few years ago. Fables in a Foreign Land, the 2022 release, showcases Doe and his trio’s country capabilities (“The Cowboy and the Hot Air Balloon”) and Americana aura (“Destroying Angels”) along with the haunting, heart-wrenching hit “Never Coming Back.”
The John Doe Folk Trio—featuring Doe, bassist Kevin Smith and drummer Conrad Choucroun—are set to open for Bob Dylan at Acrisure Arena on Saturday, June 20. During a recent phone interview, Doe said it blew his mind when he learned he’d be opening for Bob Dylan.
“If I would have known when I was 16, I would have been insufferable up until now,” Doe said. “I would say, ‘Yeah, man, I’m going to open for Bob Dylan. What are you going to do?’”
Doe said that when he and Bob Dylan first crossed paths, they talked about fishing, not music.
“That was probably the best thing I could have done, rather than say, ‘You influenced me and changed my life, and you’re a great lyricist, etcetera,’” he said. “Nobody wants to be fawned over, unless you’re a real idiot.”
Nearly 20 dates on this Dylan tour feature the John Doe Folk Trio.
“I figured it would just be a few shows,” Doe said. “I opened for Bob one time at the Palladium in Los Angeles (in 2009), and that was pretty fun. This will be even more, because I get to have my trio.”
Country legend Lucinda Williams is also on every show with Dylan and Doe.
“Lucinda is an old friend, and that is more than the icing on the cake; that’s a lot of the cake and the icing,” Doe said. “I love Lucinda, and it’s mutual, so that’s a real treat.”
Whether it’s a headline show at small clubs, or warming up Dylan-heads in arenas, Doe said he and his band provide the same musical experience.
“You’ve got to be your most real self,” he said. “You’ve got to be the realest you can be, even in a big place, because if you’re not, then you’re fronting, or you’re lying, or you’re pretending, and magically, an audience can figure that out—unless you’re really, really good at it, and you have a lot of production and things like that.”
Doe said the real difficulty in opening up a stacked bill is fitting 40 years of songs into a short set time.
“You’ve got to be the realest you can be, even in a big place, because if you’re not, then you’re fronting, or you’re lying, or you’re pretending, and magically, an audience can figure that out—unless you’re really, really good at it.”
John Doe
“I’ve got way more than eight songs,” Doe said. “I’m figuring out, ‘Well, should I play a folk song, because Bob Dylan started in the folk world?’ Basically, we’re going to just draw from the record we put out, and of course some X songs, and then some songs that we’ve been recording, which I’ll keep as a surprise, because I don’t think people will expect me to sing songs like that.”
The John Doe Folk Trio’s upcoming album will feature “mostly covers.”
“We’ve done some recording, and David Garza is the producer,” Doe said. “David is a good friend, and he’s worked with Fiona Apple for several years. He kind of co-produced that last record of hers, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, and the most recent couple of Iron & Wine records. David is incredibly adventurous, a terrific instrumentalist and a great producer. He pushes me into different areas, and he’s convinced me to try a Sade song. That’ll be cool if I could pull that off.”
Fables in a Foreign Land was outlined in the press as being set in the 19th century. Doe told Rad/Atl: “All of these songs take place in the 1890s. There’s a lot of sleeping on the ground, a lot of being hungry, a lot of isolation.” Doe said the upcoming release will not be concept-based, but rooted in emotion.
“They all choke me up at some point or another if I listen to them—not my version necessarily, but the original version,” he said. “There’s ones that I’ve either sung off and on for a while, or there’s some that I’ve always wanted to sing. The songs are deep, and a part of my history.”
Does covering these moving tunes help alleviate the emotions Doe attached to these songs? “No, they amplify them, and that’s a good thing.”
As Doe has performed these covers live, he’s seen audiences have similar emotional responses, he said.
“A couple of kind of tough-looking dudes have said, ‘Man, you played that song, and I cried,’ and I said to them, ‘That means you’re a real man,’” he said. “‘That means that you’re in touch with your emotions, and you’re not afraid to let loose.’”
Doe’s upcoming Palm Desert show marks a return to desert after an April solo set at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center.
“I’ve played at Pappy and Harriet’s several times, and a friend of mine said, ‘Why don’t you try this Retreat Center?’” Doe said. “I had driven past it a dozen times. It’s right between Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree, and it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s that odd place,’ not knowing that it was built just after World War II. It’s so cool, and there were 430-some people that showed up. I was like, ‘What the hell, man.’ It was amazing, and really, really beautiful. I think people wanted to see the new place and just me and my lonesome guitar. It was great.”
The John Doe Folk Trio will perform at 7 p.m., Saturday, June 20, at Acrisure Arena, 75702 Varner Road, in Palm Desert, with Lucinda Williams and Bob Dylan. Tickets start at $77.10. For tickets and more information, visit acrisurearena.com.
