Janine Schaults

Wesley Stace is sitting in his Brooklyn home waiting for the FedEx man to pick up the final manuscript of his first novel so it can be delivered to his copy editor in Boston. In the meantime, he is on the phone detailing how a songwriter of three- to four-minute ditties came to write a 600-plus-page tome.

With thirteen albums under his belt, the English native who performs as John Wesley Harding is ready to make the transition from being the once self-described "love child" of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez to full-fledged author. Stace's novel "Misfortune" hits the shelves in April.

Stace can craft a song in only a few hours, but it took six years to complete the story that spans several generations of an English family. He didn't even tell those close to him that he was involved with the project until it was completed because he "didn't want to be the guy who was endlessly writing a novel."

The inspiration comes from Stace's song by the same name that features the rather "gruesome" line, "I was born with a coat hanger in my mouth," which caused Stace to ponder the fate of his song's character. In doing so, a whole world emerged and also a slew of songs. A balladeer plays a large role in the novel and Stace says the songs "demand to be sung." Old friends Kelly Hogan and Nora O'Connor will join Stace for an album of the novel's ballads due out in July. Ideas are being tossed back and forth--most appealing is an a cappella project. "Dealing with Kelly and Nora, dealing with singers of astonishing high caliber and two of my favorite voices...I think that it could be a fantastic, unique moment of just getting all these people to sing together without instruments," Stace says.

"An interesting difference between books and music is that, except when I was on Mammoth records, every record label I've ever been on has made it very clear to me that my music is a bit of an imposition on the listening public and if I tried a bit harder and had my music sounding a little more [like] what's playing on the radio, then I'd be making their lives a lot easier," Stace says. "Where in the book world...apparently I've written the kind of novel that might actually possibly be well received or indeed read at all, which is a very nice idea..."

John Wesley Harding plays Schubas on January 29.

(2005-01-25)

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