Steve Poltz

Steve Poltz is one of those artists whose work you know, you just don't know it. A dozen years ago, Poltz and the Rugburns, his San Diego punk/pop outfit, had a significant college radio hit with their third and final album, Taking the World by Donkey. Around that same time, Poltz made the acquaintance of Jewel Kilcher, who was living in her van and playing any regional gig she could scrounge up. The pair collaborated on a number of songs, two of which ultimately found their way onto Jewel's debut solo album, Pieces of You, one of which was the worldwide smash "You Were Meant For Me." Poltz wound up starring as the skinny, shirtless guy in the song's video.

By the time Jewel's album was topping the charts ("You Were Meant For Me" eventually became the longest charting single in Billboard history), Poltz had departed the Rugburns and signed a solo deal with Mercury, which released his debut, One Left Shoe, in 1998. After several years of solo touring and accompanying Jewel on her tours, Poltz extricated himself from his Mercury contract and self-released the clever Answering Machine (56 songs, all clocking in at 45 seconds, all of which had been outgoing messages on Poltz's home machine, and an album that Neil Young has claimed as one of his favorites; the disc sells as quickly as Poltz can have them manufactured), Live at Largo's and Chinese Vacation.

It's now been close to four-and-a-half years since Poltz's last album (he's released a live DVD in that span, available at poltz.com), so the recent release of Traveling is exciting news even for casual fans of his smart-ass/serious folk pop. Although his rigorous touring regimen keeps him busy, it would stand to reason that Poltz has a story for the long gap between albums, and he doesn't disappoint.

"I'd started my own record label, 98 Pounder Records, and the people I was with didn't really have a staff anymore so I had to find distribution, and I was going through this break-up and I quit drinking and it seemed like it took a really long time," says Poltz in a phone interview. "Here I am finally with a record. That's why I ended up making two CDs, because it'd been so long."

There are, in fact, two new Steve Poltz albums. Traveling, a good many of its songs inspired by the upheaval and turmoil in Poltz's recent life, is available in wide release and at finer music emporiums, while its companion piece, Unraveling, is available only at Poltz's live shows. In a master stroke of marketing, Poltz packaged Traveling in a cardboard gatefold sleeve, leaving an empty pocket to house the slipcase containing Unraveling.

Traveling and Unraveling together offer 22 tracks, but in that long span between albums, Poltz accumulated over 100 songs from which to choose a final track listing. When he began working on his twin releases, he clearly had a Herculean editing job ahead of him.

"I got it down to 25, and I knew I wanted to have just 11 songs on the record. I like 11-song records, because they're shorter," he says. "So I kept 11 on it, and then I had these other 11 songs, and I thought, "They've got to get out,' so I figured I'd try something different and have something available that only fans could get at the shows, and it's been working out real well."

Although it might stand to reason that the songs on the two albums would represent the best songs from his archive, Poltz begs to differ. He rarely sees his songs in terms of quality but rather how right they feel together and how they ultimately flow as a set.

"It's not like they were in order of greatness or anything; it's kind of like the quirky cousin to Traveling," says Poltz of Unraveling. "They fit together really well, but it has a different vibe to it. I think Unraveling is edgier."

Once the decision had been made to keep both albums at 11 tracks, the biggest problem for Poltz was resisting the urge to tinker with the track list. The temptation proved too great, and Poltz was adjusting his albums until the last possible minute.

"I'm pretty much ADD and my opinion changes all the time," says Poltz with a laugh. "Even up until the day before, I was changing out songs. I had "Every Hour Every Day' as the last song [on Traveling] and put "Break on Through' on Unraveling, and at the last minute I changed it back again. Finally, I said, "Take this CD out of my hands, this is my final decision, I'm sick of going over this.' I'm an idiot, that's what it is. I can't make up my mind on things. That's why it takes so long for me to put out a record. I'm really bad with organization. If I was to walk into a messy room, I know I'd want it clean but I wouldn't know how to clean it. I just like to write songs and when it comes to putting them together in some kind of cohesive package, I'm not good at that."

Organization notwithstanding, Poltz's strength is clearly in his songwriting skills. Given his newfound sobriety, the end of his previous relationship and the beginning of this new chapter in his personal and professional life, the songs on both new CDs seem to be springing from a new source for Poltz. While there are still songs that offer Poltz's patented sense of the laughably absurd, their percentage is decidedly lower.

"I think the older I get, the more devil-may-care attitude I have, and I just get blatantly honest about things and I'm finding that it feels good," says Poltz. "I've always liked to use humor as a crutch. I have a song I wrote recently called "Things You Should Know About Me,' and in the song, I sing, "I like to use humor as a crutch.' It's kind of a funny song, so my saying it makes it funnier. So I think I've become more honest in songs, rather than just trying to be clever for clever's sake."

Although Poltz will never abandon his humorous songs - few songwriters on the scene today do clever for clever's sake better than him - his more pointedly focused honesty has come with a new willingness to be more autobiographical than ever before in his work. The songs on Traveling and Unraveling are potent proof of his commitment to this new perspective from his muse.

"When I was in the Rugburns, one of my earliest memories of writing what was painful to write was on the record Morning Wood, and the song was called "Single Life,'" recalls Poltz. "When I wrote that song, I remember being kind of scared and thinking, "I don't want to feel that way again.' And now I feel like I'm not shying away from that feeling at all. In fact, I run toward it. I'm trying to find that perfect balance."

Steve Poltz & the Cynics, The Truckee Brothers: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27, Beachland Tavern, 15711 Waterloo Rd., 216.383.1124. Tickets: $14 adv, $15 dos.