Gates: 6:30PM / Doors: 7:30PM / Show: 8:00PM
The John Doe Folk Trio is the latest project from the X frontman. Formed in his home of Austin, TX, the trio recorded Doe’s latest album “Fables In a Foreign Land” and consists of Doe, bassist Kevin Smith (Willie Nelson) and drum Conrad Choucron (NRBQ).
John Doe was born in 1977 when he arrived in Los Angeles. His previous life in Tennessee, Wisconsin & Baltimore was a great & fertile time but new music and social changes led him to events that created a life in art. He graduated from Antioch College in Baltimore in 1975, worked as a roofer, aluminum siding mechanic, and ran a poetry reading series. Ms. Meyers was his landlord in the rural black community of Simpsonville , MD. John met Exene Cervenka at the Venice poetry workshop Nov 1976 and he started working with Billy Zoom around the same time. When DJ Bonebrake joined X in mid 1977 the line up was complete. They released six studio records, five or six singles and one live record from 1978-1993. Five of X’s records have been re-issued along with two compilations. The Unheard Music documents their lives and progress as a band from 1980-83. In 2009 the film was included in the Sundance UCLA Archive of greatest films of all time. They appeared several times on American Bandstand, Solid Gold and David Letterman. As one of the last original punk rock bands standing, they continue to tour. The day that X played a free noontime concert in Fullerton, CA, they caused Orange County’s greatest high school truancy rate to date.
In 1988 John started a family and lived in the Tehachapi Mountains, near the “Grapevine” of Highway 5, which separates southern and central California. He has recorded 8 solo records w/ numerous renowned singers and players, more recently including Patty Griffin, Dan Auerbach, Aimee Mann, Don Was, Kathleen Edwards and Greg Leisz. He has appeared in over 50 films and television productions, with some of his most notable roles in Road House, Georgia, Roadside Prophets, Great Balls of Fire, Pure Country and Roswell. He continues to act these days but more sporadically as his touring schedule has become more demanding.
Other musical side projects include work with the Knitters, Jill Sobule and The Sadies. He continues to write poetry and has even taught workshops from time to time.
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David Lowery is a highly accomplished songwriter, performer, producer, and advocate for artists’ rights based in Athens, GA. He began his career in the early 1980s while studying mathematics at the University of California Santa Cruz, where he founded the critically acclaimed ensemble Camper Van Beethoven and the associated record label, Pitch-a-Tent Records. With these two entities, he played a pivotal role in jump-starting the indie rock movement. Camper Van Beethoven released six albums before going on an extended hiatus in 1990.
Afterward, Lowery formed the ensemble Cracker in 1991, which produced five top-ten alternative/rock radio tracks and three platinum albums. During this time, he also produced and recorded albums for other artists such as The Counting Crows, Magnolia Electric Company, and Sparklehorse.
In 2004, Camper Van Beethoven reformed, and since then, Lowery has been recording and touring with both bands, often playing together on a double bill. In 2005, Lowery and his wife (a concert promoter of some note) started the Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven Campout festival at the iconic Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace. The festival ran through 2019 when the venue changed ownership.
In 2019, Lowery began releasing a series of loosely autobiographical albums, including In The Shadow of the Bull (2019), Leaving Key Member Clause (2021), and Vending Machine (2023). These albums are currently only available in physical formats or via Bandcamp and are not available on streaming services. Originally intended as an experiment, the limited release strategy generated revenues that far exceeded what would be expected from a streaming release. Thus, Lowery has continued in this manner, as
apparently in the streaming age, less is more. Lowery is currently touring in support of these three albums.