NEW YARNS FROM THE KNITTERS ROOTS COUNTRY SPAWN OF X, THE BLASTERS RESURFACES ON RECORD.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

Twenty years ago, nobody knew what to make of the Knitters.

This countrified version of the seminal L.A. punk band X and its contemporaries at the time - Rank & File, Green on Red, Tex and the Horseheads - were simply corralled and branded ``cowpunk,'' now called alt-country.

John Doe says that he's always detested the earlier term.

``You know what it sounds like?'' he says during the Phoenix stop of the Knitters tour, which pulls into the El Rey tonight.

We know.

Doe prefers to think of his band, which just released its first album in 20 years, as having helped champion American roots music among punk rockers, many of whom used to think country was for old fuddy-duddies.

Of course Doe himself never felt that way about country as a kid.

Like most people of his generation, from the late '50s and '60s, Doe, born John Nommensen Duchac, couldn't escape old-timey music and folk, and didn't really want to.

He ``loved'' all that stuff.

But when he and then-wife Exene Cervenka formed X with guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer DJ Bonebrake in the late '70s, Doe was more interested in breaking rules, something his love of country, folk or the Beatles could play no part in.

``I think whenever you are trying to establish something new, you have to draw a line and put everything that came before that behind you,'' Doe says. ``You just think about what's new and localized to what you're doing at the time.

``And then you can come back to it and let that influence later stuff,'' he says, ``when you've established your own voice.''

The band was already beginning to touch on a roots sound when it decided to create the Knitters - a pun on the Weavers - as a onetime side project with upright bassist Jonny Ray Bartel and Blasters guitarist Dave Alvin.

In 1985, the Knitters released ``Poor Little Critter on the Road.''

The album featured country versions of X songs, as well as traditional takes on standards by Merle Haggard and Leadbelly.

``We did it as a tribute to old-timey music, which made it even more postmodern and ironic when there was a tribute record to our tribute record made,'' Does says, referring to the 1999 ``Poor Little Knitter on the Road: A Tribute to the Knitters,'' with contributions by Whiskeytown, Old 97's and the Sadies.

That tribute, says Doe, left the band ``flabbergasted,'' ``amused'' and ``flattered'' even.

Nobody realized the band had such an impact.

And so 20 years after its debut, the Knitters decided to regroup in the studio.

In three days, the band cut ``The Modern Sounds of the Knitters,'' which features a far-ranging country version of Steppenwolf's ``Born to Be Wild.

Doe says Cervenka's son suggested they give it a shot.

``We did it in the most hillbilly way we could think of, and there we were,'' Doe says.

At this stage in the game, the Knitters aren't fussy.

``The only way you could screw it up is to try to manicure it,'' Doe says. ``If you pull it apart, it makes it bad. If you leave it together in its little mess, then it's good.''

The result, writes the Washington Post, is ``a loose playfulness that's infectious.''

No cowpunk here.

``The interesting thing now is the Knitters have a context to exist in,'' Doe says. ``In 1985, we were kind of making up that context when it was called that really awful genre title, which is why I think it didn't go anywhere.

``I mean, 'Who wants to listen to cowpunk? Like, ew!' ''

Sandra Barrera, [phone]

sandra.barrera(at)dailynews.com

THE KNITTERS

Where: El Rey, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: 9 tonight.

Tickets: $25. [phone]; www.ticketmaster.com