"This album, it deserves a decent hearing, and I'm happy to wait for that to be," says John Wesley Harding about The Man With No Shadow, what was to have been a summer release prior to Hollywood Records' shutdown of their imprint, and Harding's home, Mammoth. "I'm in no hurry. The worst thing I could do for it would be to just hurry it out. I think it would be a shame."

Rather than drop The Man off with the first label babysitter that came knocking, Harding has decided to record another album, John Wesley Harding Swings! (and Roundabouts) (available through www.wesweb.net, line up an extensive fall tour, finish writing a novel ("I've been working on it three-and-a-half-years," he says, laughing) and pursue other interests while he diligently seeks a loving home for The Man.

"I was so lucky," Harding says. "The worst thing of all would have been if Mammoth or Hollywood had been in a position where they had to put my album out, because it was in production. Luckily that didn't happen. And then the next piece of very good news, is that Hollywood, very generously, let me pass the album onto another label. Which is nice, because you hear so many nightmare stories, and I didn't know which way it was gonna go. So I thought, what am I gonna do until I find out what's happening? I thought, the good thing for a musician to do is make a little music."

That little music is the fourth in a series of self-released albums by Harding aimed at the fanclub and die-hard set. But the first three releases consisted of an odds and ends collection, and two live recordings; Swings and Roundabouts consists of twelve new recordings. "When making pop albums like Confessions of St. Ace [2000] and Man With No Shadow, there are certain songs that I do that are a vital part of my music that don't fit on those albums. Either they'll be daunted by the arrangements that I want to give them to make them fit in the album, or they're just too folksy in tone. But believe me, this is not a minor piece of work that I threw off, it's just a very typical album. Of my albums I would liken most to New Deal in terms of sound and texture."

And Harding also hopes the album, along with the tour, will buy him some time to carefully place The Man. "Putting out Swings and Roundabouts and doing this tour buys me time that I don't have to get to a desperate position where I go 'Look, let's give it to anyone,' because I need the money or whatever that reason is," he says. "I really like the record, the production on it's the best I've ever had. The playing's absolutely fantastic. There's a track written and arranged by me and Gavin Bryers, who's my favorite contemporary classical composer. There's stuff on it that I really feel is a step ahead for me."

John Wesley Harding tour dates (additional dates to be announced):

10/10: New York, Makor
10/11: Cambridge, MA, T.T. the Bears
10/12: Bridgeport, CT, Acoustic Café
10/13: Philadelphia, Tin Angel
10/14: Arlington, VA, Iota
10/15: Carrboro, NC, Room Four
10/16: Atlanta, GA, Eddie's Attic
10/17: Nashville, Bluebird Café
10/18: Louisville, KY, Rudyard Kipling House
10/20: Pittsburgh, Club Café
10/24: Cleveland, Beachland Ballroom
10/25: Dayton, OH, Canal Street Tavern
10/26: Indianapolis, Birdy's
10/28: Newport, KY, Southgate House
10/29: Madison, WI, Luther's Blues
10/30: Milwaukee, Shank Hall
10/31: Woodstock, IL, Waverly Gold Note
11/1-2: Chicago, Schuba's
11/3: Cedar Rapids, IA, CSPS
11/13: Berkeley, CA, Freight and Salvage

ANDREW DANSBY
(September 20, 2002)