If you read their band biography closely, you'll notice that The Knitters are American roots music. Why, they even conducted a recording session with Jimmie Rodgers. In 1927.
Ahem.
In reality, The Knitters have been around a while. Just not quite that long.
In 1985, John Doe and Exene Cervenka of the punk band X got together with guitarist Dave Alvin, also of X and Blasters fame, to make an album of country and rockabilly music. They named themselves The Knitters as a tribute to Pete Seeger's Weavers.
Twenty years later, Doe, Cervenka and Alvin are together again for a second record: The Modern Sounds of the Knitters. They gathered recently to tell Debbie Elliott about it.
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