By Brad Hundt,Staff Writer

bhundt@observer-reporter.com

Johnette Napolitano has spent most of her career fronting the Los Angeles alternative rock band Concrete Blonde, so you would think flying solo would be an adjustment.

That's not the case, Napolitano said earlier this week.

"I love it. I started playing guitar and writing songs when I was a kid, so this is very natural to me ... I really like the freedom of being able to interact with the audience the way I want to, and sing the songs the way I want to, depending on the energy in the room."

On the phone from Philadelphia before an appearance on the "World Cafe" radio program (carried locally on WYEP-FM), Napolitano added that it's unlikely that Concrete Blonde will ever play together again, despite a tempestuous history that spanned almost 30 years and made them favorites on college radio.

"Don't hold your breath," she said matter-of-factly. "We were proud of it and it's time to do something else."

That "something else" for Napolitano is "Scarred," her first official solo album, which is being released next week by Hybrid Recordings. It features 10 songs written or co-written by Napolitano, along with cover versions of Coldplay's "The Scientist" and the Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties."

The searing, operatic vocals that Napolitano applied to Concrete Blonde's nine-album oeuvre are still intact on "Scarred," which was recorded in London and Los Angeles. Most of the songs were written in a small cabin Napolitano bought five years ago in Joshua Tree, Calif., an artists' oasis about 130 miles east of Los Angeles.

Thanks to e-mail, "I can sit on my five acres in the middle of the desert and shoot tracks back and forth. It's a wonderful thing. You can collaborate with anybody in the world."

An enthusiastic, mile-a-minute conversationalist, the 49-year-old Napolitano said that retreating to desert solitude was "the best move I've made in my life."

"It's done wonders for me ... It's just a really inspiring place. You can hear yourself think, you can feel your inspiration. I see people completely change when they come out."

Aside from the years Napolitano led Concrete Blonde, she also was briefly a member of the Heads, the short-lived 1990s reunion of the Talking Heads minus David Byrne. It became the subject of critical derision, but Napolitano describes being in the Heads as "probably one of the most valuable experiences in my life."

"It was a tremendous amount of work and it definitely upped my game as a musician .... It was a very treasured experience in my life."

Napolitano also has become involved with soundtrack work, mostly for small, independent films, is a flamenco dancer and an artist whose chosen medium is reclaimed tin and wood.

She's planning on exhibiting her work soon in Portland, Ore., then, perhaps, shipping it to New York for a gallery showing there.

"That'll make me nervous, because New York is obviously a big place and I'm not sure if the stuff I do is very New York-ish. But it's what I do."

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