John Doe has had a fascinating career. Doe has done stints in bands like the Knitters and the Flesh Eaters, but he’s best-known as one of the two leaders of LA punk legends X. (In 2020, the original lineup of X got back together to release Alphabetland, their first album in 35 years.) Doe has also done memorable character-actor work in movies like Road House and Boogie Nights, and he’s got a long-running solo career playing craggy, dusty Americana. This spring, he’s coming back with a new solo LP.

Doe’s new LP is called Fables In A Foreign Land, and all of its songs take place in the 1890s. It’s an album about hardship and desolation, and it includes contributions from co-writers like Garbage’s Shirley Manson, Los Lobos’ Terry Allen and Louie Pérez, and Doe’s X bandmate Exene Cervenka. Lead single “Never Coming Back” is a swirling march, and its lyrics are almost mythically dark: “You killed my ma and pa/ Burned down their shack/ I’m going far away/ And never coming back.”

Doe has this to say about “Never Coming Back”:

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.

Below, check out the stark black-and-white video for “Never Coming Back” and the new album’s tracklist.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Never Coming Back”
02 “Down South”
03 “See The Almighty”
04 “Guilty Bystander”
05 “There’s A Black Horse”
06 “El Romance-0”
07 “Missouri”
08 “The Cowboy And The Hot Air Balloon”
09 “After The Fall”
10 “Destroying Angels”
11 “Travelin’ So Hard”
12 “Sweetheart”
13 “Where The Songbirds Live”

Fables In A Foreign Land is out 5/20 on Fat Possum.