John Doe Twangs It Up w/Sadies

Neko Case's favorite band in a mouth watering collaboration with the X legend.

By Blurt Staff

John Doe and The Sadies join forces for Country Club, an album of classic country covers and originals due out April 14, on Yep Roc Records.

"Country Club is the result of a drunken promise or threat I made to Travis & Dallas [Good, of The Sadies] the first night we played together in Toronto. These happen all the time but it's rare that anyone remembers them the morning after, let alone follows through and makes it a reality. I'm really glad we did," says X, Knitters and solo artist John Doe about the series of events that led to his new project with cosmic roots rockers The Sadies.

By including varying yet equally beloved movements within the country music pantheon, Doe and The Sadies were able to cover their heroes while filtering the pop sensibilities of 60s Nashville through the electric honky tonk of Bakersfield, CA.

Doe remarks, "We're not sure why it sounds like it's from the sixties. Maybe that's our favorite era of country music or maybe that's what we listened to when we first learned how to play it. But what was called ‘Countrypolitan' always seemed one of the coolest hybrids of country music.  But we agreed quickly & completely that there were going to be no string sections, horns or choirs.  Bakersfield vs. Nashville was never a dispute . . . Bakersfield!" Dallas Good of The Sadies continues, "The songs chosen were very ambitious, and while we haven't re-invented the wheel we have created a cohesiveness between several hit country & western singles and our own styles."

Despite the innovation of melding the sounds of Nashville and Bakersfield, timeless sounds abound on Country Club. All of it  driven by Doe's singular vocals, the dueling thousand pound chops of the guitar-wielding Good brothers and The Sadies' world class rhythm section of Mike Belitsky and Sean Dean.

On Country Club, classic tunes by Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings stand alongside late-night ballads by Tammy Wynette and Roger Miller. The album also features four originals - three from The Sadies and one courtesy of X songwriting duo John Doe and Exene Cervenka. John Doe and The Sadies have found the perfect blend of the reverent and the experimental, resulting in a slightly psychedelic brew that just might pass for straight if you're not lookin'.

Tracklist & Credits:

1) Stop the World and Let Me Off

Songwriter: Carl Belew

Made famous by: Waylon Jennings

Veronica Jane Doe - vocals

2) Husbands and Wives

Songwriter: Roger Miller

D.J. Bonebrake - vibraphones

Margaret Good - vocals

Eric Heywood - pedal steel

3) ‘Til I Get It Right

Songwriters: Red Lane, Larry Henley

Made famous by: Tammy Wynette

D.J. Bonebrake - vibraphones

Eric Heywood - pedal steel

4) It Just Dawned on Me

Songwriters: Exene Cervenka, John Doe

Kathleen Edwards - vocals

5) (Now and Then) There's a Fool Such as I

Songwriter: William Marvin Trader

Made famous by: Hank Snow

Eric Heywood - pedal steel

Cindy Wasserman - vocals

6) The Night Life

Songwriters: Paul F. Buskirk, Walter M. Breeland, Willie Nelson

Made famous by: Ray Price

D.J. Bonebrake - vibraphones

Eric Heywood - pedal steel

7) The Sudbury Nickel

Songwriters: The Sadies

8) Before I Wake

Songwriters: The Sadies

Bob Egan - pedal steel

Margaret Good - vocals

Bruce Good - autoharp

9) I Still Miss Someone

Songwriters: Johnny Cash, Roy Cash Jr.

Bruce Good - autoharp

10) The Cold Hard Facts of Life

Songwriter: Bill Anderson

Made famous by: Porter Wagoner

Eric Heywood - pedal steel

11) Take These Chains from My Heart

Songwriter: Fred Rose, Hy Heath

Made famous by: Hank Williams

D.J. Bonebrake - vibraphones

Margaret Good - vocals

Eric Heywood - pedal steel

Cindy Wasserman - vocals

12) Help Me Make It Through the Night

Songwriter: Kris Kristofferson

13) Are the Good Times Really Over for Good

Songwriter: Merle Haggard

Kathleen Edwards - vocals

14) Detroit City

Songwriters: Danny Dill, Mel Tillis

Made famous by: Bobby Bare

15) Pink Mountain Rag

Songwriters: The Sadies

Bob Egan - pedal steel