Everyone's doing one, so why not Mike Ness? Less than seven months after the release of his solo debut, Cheating at Solitaire, the Social Distortion frontman will follow in the footsteps of Paul McCartney, Metallica and a slew of others by releasing an all-covers album entitled Under the Influences.

The album, set for release Nov. 9, will crib from artists like Hank Williams, Marvin Rainwater and Johnny Cash, all of whom influenced Ness' countrified debut. Currently, Ness and his touring band are in a Los Angeles studio with Cheating at Solitaire producer James Saez, working on seventeen tracks, fourteen of which are expected to appear on the album.

"I wanted to try to do from the Thirties to the Seventies," said Ness. "But I don't know if I can cover all that in one record. There might be a volume one and two. I'd like to start with the depression era, folk music and go up to the Seventies. You know, do a Johnny Thunders song as well as a Johnny Cash song. Do a Hank Williams and maybe an acoustic Deadboys song or something."

Songs he's working on include four Williams selections ("Lost Highway," "Mansion on the Hill," "House of Gold," "Six More Miles [To the Graveyard]"), two Rainwater songs ("Gamblin' Man [Roving Gambler]," "My Brand of Blues"), two George Jones songs ("World's Worst Loser," "Once a Day"), and additional selections by Cash ("I Walk the Line"), Buck Owens ("You're for Me"), the Carter Family ("Wildwood Flower") and Wanda Jackson ("Funnel of Love"), among other songs.

"It is my opinion that if you don't have roots you don't have shit," he said, "and my roots are in American music, whether it is in Depression-era folk music or delta blues, Chicago blues, traditional country, dark rockabilly or just primitive rock & roll."

BLAIR R. FISCHER
(August 18, 1999)