• John Doe & Jill Sobule
• 6:15pm Seating / 8:30pm Show

ABOUT JOHN DOE

As one of the founding members of the Los Angeles punk band X, John Doe was one of the most influential figures in American alternative rock during the early '80s, but when he launched a solo career in the early '90s, he decided to pursue a rootsy, country-rock direction instead of continuing with punk. X's latter-day albums exhibited a rockabilly and country influence, but it wasn't until Doe's 1990 debut, "Meet John Doe", that he recorded a pure country album.

"Meet John Doe" was recorded during a hiatus in X's career. Following the release of the 1988 live album "Live at the Whisky a Go-Go" the band temporarily parted ways. Initially, Doe concentrated on the acting career he began in 1986 with Oliver Stone's "Salvador", appearing in "Road House" and the Jerry Lee Lewis biopic "Great Balls of Fire" in 1989. The following year, "Meet John Doe" was released on DGC to positive reviews, yet it didn't appeal to an audience outside of X's cult, peaking at 193 on the pop charts. Later in 1992, X began playing live again and Doe's solo musical career went on hiatus, although he continued to act in movies like "Pure Country", "Liquid Dreams", "Roadside Prophets", "Wyatt Earp", and "Georgia".

Following X's 1993 reunion album, "Hey Zeus!", Doe signed a solo contract with Rhino/Forward. In summer 1995, Doe released "Kissingsohard", a harder and punkier album than his debut. A few months after its release, X released the live semi-acoustic set "Unclogged", which would turn out to be their final album. The band split up a year later, but their original lineup (with Billy Zoom on guitar) reunited for a series of live shows in 1998 and toured periodically. Doe continued to focus on his solo career when not occupied with X or his acting career: "Freedom Is..." was released by the SpinArt label in 2000, the semi-acoustic "Dim Stars, Bright Sky" appeared on Artists Direct in 2002, and the subtle but aggressive "Forever Hasn't Happened Yet" arrived via Yep Roc in 2005. It was that same label that reissued Doe's 1998 KRS EP "For the Rest of Us" under the name "For the Best of Us", the new version containing five additional songs that had been recorded during the same sessions. Doe stayed with Yep Roc for his next two albums as well, 2007's "A Year in the Wilderness" and 2009's "Country Club", where he is co-billed with Canadian roots band the Sadies.

ABOUT JILL SOBULE

Jill Sobule belongs to a rare breed of artists. Her work is at once deeply personal and socially conscious, seriously funny and derisively tragic. Over five albums and a decade of recording, the Denver-born songwriter/guitarist/singer has tackled such topics as the death penalty, anorexia, shoplifting, reproduction, the French resistance movement, adolescence, and the Christian right. Did we mention love? Love found, love lost, love wished for and love taken away.

While her songs cover a huge amount of ground, they all have benefit greatly from Jill's subtle intelligence and skillful light-handedness. No sloganeering flag-and-fist waving here, but rather story songs about human beings, real and imagined, which allow us to step back from the issue, be it personal or social, and relate to it as we would a close friend.

To see Jill live and in concert is a rare treat. It is on stage that she is most comfortable, most powerful, and where the delicacy and range of her work can be best appreciated. She entertains, amuses, provokes, and more often then not, takes her audiences on an emotional roller coaster, from comedy to pathos in a few bars of music.

Jill began playing guitar when she joined the Junior High School band. She never learned to read music, though, and faked her way through rehearsals and performances by playing by ear. As she began writing songs, it was very clear to Jill this was becoming more than a teenage hobby. Music was serious stuff. She played in a variety of funk and rock bands in Colorado, and eventually made her first, Todd Rundgren-produced, album for MCA, Things Here Are Different.

But success did not knock on her door until three years later, when Atlantic Records released her MTV staple and national top 20 hit, I Kissed A Girl. "That song was a double-edged sword for me," Jill Says. "It was perceived as a novelty hit, but on the other hand it was the first song with an overtly gay topic to be aired on Top 40 radio. I am quite proud of that." The self-titled album also yielded another hit song, Supermodel, included in the Clueless soundtrack.

The song also jumpstarted her live music career in a big way, and since then she's had the honor to induct Neil Diamond in the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, to share the stage with the likes of Neil Young (at his yearly Bridge School benefit concerts), fellow activists Billy Bragg & Steve Earle, and Waren Zevon. Quite the serious guitar player, she even toured the world as lead guitarist in Lloyd Cole's band a few years back.

Since then, she has made four more critically acclaimed albums, "Happy Town", "Pink Pearl", "Underdog Victorious", and 2009's "California Years", which Jill released on her own record label, Pinko Records, after collecting over $85,000 from fans who funded the project.

A veritable gypsy, Jill divides her time between a busy touring schedule and a variety of other projects. She has played the role of political troubadour for NPR stations across the country and for Air America Radio. She also served as songwriter/composer for the hit Nickelodeon network show Unfabulous during that show's three-season run. She composed the music for the off-Broadway show Prozak and the Platypus and co-starred in the Eric Schaeffer film Mind the Gap.

In the words of New York Times pop music critic Jon Pareles - "Jill Sobule can claim her place among the stellar New York singer-songwriters of the last decade. Topical, funny and more than a little poignant ... grown-up music for an adolescent age."