A FOLK SINGER TAPS 2 LYRICAL AUTHORS, REAPS KIND WORDS.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

IT'S BEEN THE BIGGEST boost to Jim Roll's singing career yet. When the folk singer and songwriter began working on his third album, he wrote to two of his favorite authors about collaborating on some tracks.

Rick Moody (``The Ice Storm'' and ``The Black Veil: A Memoir With Digressions'') and Denis Johnson (``Jesus' Son'') often reference music in their books, leading Roll, who performs at the Mint tonight, to believe that they were probably closeted songwriters.

``I just sent the guys some music and wrote them the most sincere letter I could, just saying, 'I really enjoy your books. Do you ever write lyrics? I'd love to try to put some to music.' And it just went from there,'' he said.

Roll's collaborations with Moody and Johnson now appear on ``Inhabiting the Ball,'' a countrified folk-rock record that the New Yorker called ``remarkable.'' The album has gained other considerable acclaim since its March release, and not just for its prolific guest lyricists or its tie to the esteemed literary journal McSweeney's.

As the Village Voice's Barry Mazor observed, ``It's (Roll's) own stuff that still charms most.''

Five of the 13 tracks were written by the Ann Arbor, Mich., resident that Playboy's John Marsh called ``that rare writer and performer who moves you one instant and in the next is funny as hell, usually while he's poking you right in the center of a raw nerve.''

His plaintive real-life story ``Eddie Rode the Orphan Train,'' wrote David Cantwell in the alt-country magazine No Depression, ``will likely be one of the finest story songs this year.''

``There's not a lot of woe is me, I'm in love, on this record,'' Roll said. ``I tried to keep it more cartoonish and narrative ... literary.''

With cooperation from Moody and Johnson, Roll has turned out his most cohesive record to date. His last two - 1998's ``Ready to Hang'' and 2000's ``Lunette'' - were also well-received, but nowhere near his latest offering.

Roll, 36, got his start in the mid-'90s performing as a street musician in Frankfurt, Germany. He had followed his girlfriend - an exchange student - back to her country.

Positioning himself in the town square near houses and shops, Roll says that he was able to earn a decent living.

``You'd sing all your songs and people would drop in a little bit of money, and then you'd throw on a Paul Simon song or something and they'd go nuts,'' Roll said. ``If I sat there and did only Paul Simon songs, I think I could have made a lot of money.''

But Roll decided to come back to America to sing in clubs and make records. ``Inhabiting the Ball'' is his first collaborative effort.

``Well, to be honest, everything worked the first time. They didn't give me any revisions at all,'' Roll said of Moody and Johnson. ``The feedback I got from both of them was that I read their minds pretty much the way they had envisioned their songs.

``Knowing their literature probably helped,'' he added. ``Remember, I didn't send out letters to 50 authors. I sent them out to two authors that I really liked.''

JIM ROLL

Where: The Mint, 6010 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: 9 tonight.

Tickets: $7. Call [phone].

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``There's not a lot of woe is me, I'm in love, on this record. I tried to keep it more cartoonish and narrative ... literary,'' says Jim Roll of his new album, ``Inhabiting the Ball.''