"(Small venues are) the best -- intimate, conversational. People can make some magic," he said. "Those are the places where I think what I do fits the best."

The former frontman of folk-rock band Vigilantes of Love, Mallonee has released 17 albums in a 15-year career. He's played 120 shows a year for the past 10 years, with a revolving cast of bandmates.

Two years ago, Mallonee stepped out on his own, releasing solo albums ranging from Brit-pop to stark Americana.

The Bob Dylan comparisons have always come, but seem even more apt now with Mallonee's "Nashville Skyline"-esque picture in the liner of his latest album.

"Dear Life," is full of acoustic guitars, harmonicas and harmonies. It's also filled with words, his most "naked, poetic, brutal and beautiful" album to date, he once said.

"I awoke from comic books suburbs of my slumber

complacent curbside summers, footnotes of my wonder

and everything's so vulnerable, especially when it's fashionable

if I showed you all my heart honey, isn't life the truest art?"

he sings on the rollicking "Ready and Red-Eyed."

On "Chameleon Me (Pin My Hope)," he shows why he can still sing after so many years of somewhat unhearalded toil:

"In spite of the deed out in the open,

in spite of the fall, in spite of the broken,

can I hitch my wagon to the star in your sky

and can i pin my hope to the light in your eyes that I see?"

Mallonee's current tour, featuring him at his barest, has allowed songs both new and old to be shown off "as they were first conceived." A hallmark of his live show is also the regular banter with audience members, including loyal fans who drive some distance to see him.

"I think I'm writing my best stuff yet, honestly, and it seem to stand without a lot of embellishment," he said. "It just seems to keep flowing right now. It's a cool feeling when you feel like the 'gates are open' to yourself and you just let it pour."

Contact Thomas V. Bona at tbona@etruth.com.