John Doe - A Year in the Wilderness

While there's no arguing that John Doe is a gifted songwriter and has one of the finest voices in the great state of California, since he made his solo debut with Meet John Doe in 1990 he seems to have been struggling to create a musical identity that's separate from his superb work with X. While it falls several notches short of his best work, A Year In The Wilderness suggests that he's finally been able to create an eclectic but emphatic persona that's all his own. While "The Golden State," Doe's duet with Kathleen Edwards, recalls some of X's more measured and soulful moments (more so than "Darling Underdog," which Doe wrote with his X collaborator Exene Cervenka), most of the rest of the album settles into a groove that suggests blues-infused folk-rock that isn't afraid to get noisy around the edges, aided by the tough, gutsy guitars of Dave Alvin, Dan Auerbach and Chris Bruce. Read More