John Doe of X returns in May with new solo album 'Fables in a Foreign Land'

The new solo release from John Doe, Fables in a Foreign Land, will hit retail and digital outlets on May 20 via Fat Possum Records.

“These songs take place alone, wandering, searching and hungry accompanied by horses not machines. Ultimately, I hope to send the listener to an unknown place with unpredictable characters and let them all live in that foreign land.”

Guests writers include Shirley Manson (Garbage), Exene Cervenka (X),Terry Allen and Louie Pérez (Los Lobos).

First single, “Never Coming Back,” is available to listen and stream today.
Watch the new video for "Never Coming Back" debuting today.

John Doe: Punk rock pioneer with X, songwriter, poet, actor, solo artist, published author…folk musician - with Fables in a Foreign Land, Doe’s songs are set in a dusty desolate pre-Industrial Era.

“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,” explains Doe of the concept album. “All of that fits into the kind of isolation and lack of modern stimuli that I think people started rediscovering during the pandemic lockdown: realizing that as parts of your life start getting taken away, what’s important and what you live for becomes paramount.”

oining Doe on the album are Kevin Smith (Willie Nelson) on bass and Conrad Choucroun on drums. And though most of the 13 songs were written over the last three years, the sound was born during weekly, acoustic backyard jams on Smith’s patio.

Of the first single, “Never Coming Back,” Doe explains, “This song starts the record for a reason, it embodies the spirit and events of what’s to come. It begins a journey that will be without comfort, where you are running from something dark, that is approaching fast. You can’t go back because there’s nothing to go back to. The entire record is set during the end of the 1890’s. Thanks to Terry Allen for the extra words.”

Track listing:

Never Coming Back

Down South
See The Almighty
Guilty Bystander
There’s A Black Horse
El Romance-0
Missouri
The Cowboy and the Hot Air Balloon
After The Fall
Destroying Angels
Travelin’ So Hard
Sweetheart
Where The Songbirds Live