For the first time in twenty-five years, alt-rock hero Curt Kirkwood is officially on his own. And as he puts the finishing touches on his solo debut, the Meat Puppets guitarist, singer and songwriter is enjoying his newfound independence.

"I don't have to wake up and find out so-and-so hasn't had their enema yet, or that the enema went awry and it'll be another hour before they can leave their hotel room," Kirkwood says with a laugh. "Musicians are great and all that, but every musician I've ever met lives in a world of their own."

Now signed to Grammy-winning producer Pete Anderson's label, Little Dog Records, Kirkwood is currently completing the provisionally titled Snow for fall release. But just because Anderson helped pioneer cowpunk -- and worked with Dwight Yoakam -- don't assume the new disc is a country effort.

"I grew up around the horse tracks, on country music," says the Texas-born Kirkwood, who lives in Austin. "But I'm as far from country as you can get. I hate cowboy hats -- I could give a rat's ass about that shit."

Instead, Kirkwood says the album is "not that different" from the Meat Puppets, for whom he was the primary songwriter. However, the arrangements are more intimate and less rock-oriented, spotlighting Kirkwood's vocals and guitar. Anderson played percussion, and there will also be pedal steel (courtesy of Little Dog's Bob "Boo" Bernstein), upright bass and trumpet.

This is not the first time Kirkwood and Anderson have teamed up: Anderson produced the Meat Puppets' 1991 major-label debut, Forbidden Places. However, the effort, which followed several influential Puppets releases that fused hard-rock, punk and country, got lost in Nirvana's wake.

After the Meat Puppets played a major role in Nirvana's MTV Unplugged special, they tasted mainstream success with their 1994 hit single "Backwater." But the original trio (which featured Kirkwood's bassist brother Cris and drummer Derrick Bostrom) disbanded in 1996, and a different lineup crumbled a few years later, just as Sonic Youth called offering a tour slot. Kirkwood volunteered to open the shows anyway, and discovered the he could have a different kind of impact on his own.

"The dynamic is the same if you play real low-key," says Kirkwood. "You can get the same kind of reaction from people -- minus the psycho-sexual hysteria that rock creates."

During that tour, the Nirvana connection once again steered Kirkwood's career. An offer from bassist Krist Novaselic to start a band led to Eyes Adrift, a trio that also included ex-Sublime drummer Bud Gaugh. Kirkwood would later form Volcano with Gaugh before deciding to go solo.

Kirkwood's brother, who battled drug problems for some time, was jailed last year for assaulting a security guard, but his term is up soon. "He's being productive, from what I understand. I think he plays music," says Kirkwood. "I kinda stay out of that -- deep waters." Yet with so many of the Meat Puppets' Eighties peers regrouping, Kirkwood won't shut the door on a Meat Puppets reunion. But if he ever revived the name, he says, he'd want to be the one in control.

"I heard [director] Trey Parker talking about Team America," Kirkwood explains, "and he was saying that the puppets were horrible, just unwieldy and super-difficult. But he said at the end of the day, they're still better than real actors."