Songwriter Plans on Taking the Long and Winding Road

The lure of the open road has appealed to the Bohemian side of countless musicians over the centuries. In post-Reagan, career-oriented America, of course, most troubadours settle for something less romantic: a day job, a fixed address and occasional gigs to keep at least a finger-hold on the dream.

Jon Kanis is an exception to that trend. The 27-year-old singer-songwriter, who has performed locally at the Espresso Cafe and Megalopolis, is preparing to embark on the sort of guitar-and-knapsack sojourn that would be the envy of most mortgaged holdovers of the ‘60s.

The idea of quitting his job and hitting the road has been brewing since April, when Kanis returned from a 16-day trek through Europe. While in England, Kanis opened for the San Diego-based band Manual Scan at an international Mod rally in Chippenham, and again at the infamous Marquee club in London, a ‘60s launching pad for such groups as the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds.

On his own, Kanis did some street-busking for tips in Amsterdam. A month after returning to San Diego, he traveled to New York City to perform at a convention of Bob Dylan enthusiasts, where he met poets Michael McClure and Allen Ginsberg. The combined experiences were leavening.

“Like a lot of Americans, I had always been petrified by the idea of existing beyond the confines of my home without my ‘things’--my car and all the other material stuff we think is so important to our daily lives,” Kanis said in an interview earlier this week. “But once I had been in Europe for two weeks, and saw how easy it is to exist with nothing but a bag of clothing, I realized that this romantic, Ginsberg-Kerouac notion of being a vagabond is actually possible in the 1990s. At that point, I just decided to do it.”

Kanis, a technical writer and editor, already has notified his employer that he will be leaving in February. He’s now booking his own cross-country tour of stateside clubs as a preliminary to returning to Europe in April. In that regard, invaluable assistance has come from Geffen Records recording artist Peter Case--for and about whom Kanis publishes a fan-oriented newsletter, “Travellin’ Light.”

“Peter just paid me off in spades for all the work I’ve done on his newsletter by flipping through his notebook and giving me the names of 15 contacts for gigs. He said, ‘Just tell them you’re a songwriter and that you work with me.’ I was wary about exploiting him that way, but Peter doesn’t see himself as a big star who has to worry about that sort of thing. He’s been extremely gracious.”

Kanis recently finished recording a six-song cassette of original songs, “Walk Without Me,” that covers a stylistic range from the Gothic-grungy title track to the R.E.M.-ish folk-rock of “Waste of Time,” and from the catchy country of “Arlington” to the coffeehouse folk-jazz of “Where I Wish You Were.” Because he’s been concentrating on the release, Kanis hasn’t performed in public for a couple of months, and he’s anxious to get back on stage.

“The gigs in Europe were great,” he said. “Manual Scan was really well-received, and they applauded vigorously for me as well. I really think there are a lot of opportunities over there for American musicians because of the reverse-novelty factor. We’re just as exotic to them as they seem to us when they tour here. This time, I hope to spend about six months over there.”

“Walk Without Me” will be available at all three Off the Record stores at the end of the week.

Producers of the seventh annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame awards ceremony, held two weeks ago in New York City, panicked when they realized they had no visuals to accompany a posthumous tribute to legendary New Orleans pianist Professor Longhair (real name Henry Byrd), who was a seminal influence on rock ‘n’ roll. An eleventh-hour call to local video archivist David Peck got the producers the next best thing--a rare video of the Neville Brothers performing “Big Chief,” a song long associated with Longhair.

Peck ended up supplying the video footage for the tribute to another inductee, rock promoter Bill Graham, who died last year in a helicopter crash. This is the third consecutive year that the Hall of Fame committee has dipped into Peck’s private collection.

Over the years, one becomes inured to the foaming-at-the- mouth hype that accompanies album releases. Every new act is the hottest this and the greatest that, and they’re all destined to alter the orbital paths of the planets, or, at least, to leave an indelible mark on pop history. Of course, most of them barely leave footprints as they sprint into obscurity.

At least Alias Records, the small, independent label with offices in Burbank and San Francisco, sets reasonable, attainable goals for its charges, and hawks them accordingly. Rubber-stamped onto the package holding the label’s newest issues is the legend: “None of Our Bands Suck.”

GRACE NOTES: And now for something completely different: The Belly Up Tavern will present an unusual evening of entertainment Feb. 5, beginning at 7:30 p.m. with a concert featuring Warren Zevon and the Odds, and beginning again at 11 p.m. with a dance party featuring Bop(harvey). The unprecedented bi-concert presentation is an unplanned experiment--Bop(harvey) was already signed to play that night when Zevon became available, and the Belly Up decided to offer both. The later show requires a separate admission of $2.

The U.S. Grant Grill’s mostly-jazz policy is making a worthy exception with the booking of the local folk-pop-rock band Bordertown, which will play the downtown spot from 6 to 10 p.m. every Thursday night for the next couple of months.

BOOKINGS: (Tickets for the following concerts will be sold at all TicketMaster outlets unless otherwise specified).

The Cadillac Tramps have replaced Dumpster as the opening act for the Cramps’ Feb. 1 gig at Iguanas. . . . Former Camper Van Beethoven standout David Lowery brings his band Cracker to Winter’s/Fallout on Feb. 8. . . . Nitzer Ebb will be at UC San Diego’s Price Center on Feb. 25. On sale Friday. . . . Buddy Blue and the Jacks and the Rugburns will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Spirit. Jose Sinatra and the Troy Dante Inferno will open the show.

CRITIC’S CHOICE: ELECTRIC-GUITAR STUD ALLAN HOLDSWORTH AT SOUND FX

Allan Holdsworth is that rare electric-guitar stud--a guy who can play a million notes in succession without sounding like a music-school graduate practicing scales after drinking too much espresso. Holdsworth’s improvisational excursions are more like virtuosic stream-of-consciousness.

There are a finite number of guitar heroes with well-defined, original “voices.” Holdsworth is one of the best of them. On Friday,, he’ll bring a crack backup band featuring drummer Chad Wackerman, keyboardist Steve Hunt, and bassist Skulli Sverrison to Sound FX. Opening is the band City Limit.