Forever Hasn't Happened Yet

Your lopsided heart emptied out on Hwy 99 as you drop down into the Central Valley of California. There is a pain, like shortness of breath or a catch in your throat. Flat land, rusty wire, dirt and dust blows in the open car window. You can smell the irrigation water and someone's getting hurt out there. The skin is soft and bruises easily. Welcome home. yrs, John Doe This is not punk rock but it uses all the same ingredients; sex, drugs, death, loss, longing & alienation. The difference is the speed & melody of the songs which are set in a beautiful but harsh landscape. This is Americana like the scariest blues & the saddest country can be. This is a record made the way Muddy Waters would make records, all thrown into a very small & sweaty room until the song squeezes through the cracks. Neko Case, Kristin Hersh, Cindy Lee Berryhill & Veronica Jane (Doe's 16 yr old daughter) provide the female foil that was Exene's role in X & she contributes by co-writing "Hwy 5," a duet with Neko. Grant-Lee Phillips & Dave Alvin lend their unique talents in beautiful, heart-wrenching & savage electric songs respectively. Not for the faint of heart, this CD was recorded in ultra black & white.

Since John Doe left active duty with X, he's released a series of solo albums that, in a variety of different ways, have drawn many listeners to the same conclusion -- he's still a superb singer and a strong songwriter, but there's just something missing from his work on his own, which lacks the force and resonance of his music with X. It isn't necessarily tied to the fact that he doesn't rock as hard, given how powerful his work was with X's acoustic side project, the Knitters, and it shouldn't be a matter of not having good collaborators, as Doe's 2005 solo set, Forever Hasn't Happened Yet, boasts an impressive set of talented guests.