Mike Ness laughs and jogs his memory when asked about his evolution as a songwriter. "It's funny, when I drove here [to Time Bomb Records in Los Angeles] today, I heard [Social Distortion's] 'Prison Bound' on the radio, he says. "I've learned so much in the last ten years about how to sing, or how to write, or how to perform in the studio, as well as live. It's a good measuring stick." In his career as frontman for Social D, with their recidivistic journey from indie to major to indie again, Ness has become wary of the music business and the mechanisms of success. Despite some cynicism, his music has retained the same earnest, no-nonsense approach that characterized his early recordings. Cheating at Solitaire, his first solo album, melds country and punk with the stripped-down honesty of nascent rock & roll.

To record the album, Ness pulled together an impressive array of guest musicians, ranging from rock veterans Bruce Springsteen, Brian Setzer and X's Billy Zoom to the saxophonist and rhythm section of Royal Crown Revue. Amazingly, the eclectic ensemble doesn't clash on record: "Everyone who played on this record, from the drums onto the guest appearances, we asked because we knew they were going to bring something to it," he says. The most obvious example is Springsteen, whose backing vocals on "Misery Loves Company" complement Ness' rasp so well that you wonder why the two haven't recorded together before. As Ness explains it, getting the Boss to sing on the record wasn't hard at all: "We had a list of people ranging from Johnny Cash down to Bruce Springsteen, and we called him up and he was into it," he explains.

Setzer's involvement was also quite germane. Though he and Ness share many mutual friends, the two had somehow never met prior to the recording session. "He showed up, we met, we smoked a cigar and we talked for awhile; he went out and played and it was awesome," Ness says.

In addition to solid originals like "Devil in Miss Jones" and the moody "Charmed Life," Ness takes on Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice It's Alright," Johnny Cash's "Long Black Veil" and Hank Williams' "You Win Again" -- songs many artists wouldn't dare touch with a ten foot pole. "Usually the way I pick a cover is it's a song that I've been playing alone in my dining room for six months that I just love so much that I want to sing it and somewhere along the line it becomes mine," he explains. "Even when I'm doing another person's song I want to change it and make it mine."

Ness will be hitting the road this spring in support of his album, and he promises his scaled-down solo effort won't soften his live set. "It's not going to be quiet and mellow, I assure you," he says. "I don't do that. Even when I do acoustic ballads I try to do it powerful." As for the future of Social Distortion, he says, "when I get tired of this, I'll probably be really excited to do another Social D record ... and I'm predicting a real Seventies garage record."

DAVID DERBY
(April 26, 1999)