John Sinclair is old-school. He speaks in the cool, languorous cadences of a classic jazzbo beatnik punctuated with a ruffled, conspiratorial laughter. In another life, the poet, disc jockey, writer, activist, musician, and self-styled " blues scholar " was the manager of a Detroit outfit called the MC5 — a proto-punk rhythm-and-blues band who identified with the radical, militant black politics of the time via the White Panther Party, which Sinclair founded. There is plenty of history under Sinclair’s fingernails: the ’68 Democratic National Convention, at which the MC5 were the only band to perform; and the jail cell where he kept house for a year — sentenced to 10 years for possession of a joint, he was subsequently the subject of both a John Lennon song and a Supreme Court decision.

Sinclair was in town a couple weeks back, having just appeared at MassCann’s annual pot-legalization Freedom Rally, and someone mentioned that quite a few rock-and-roll bands were rediscovering the legacy of the MC5. " Yeah, that’s a good start, " he said. " When they find their way to James Brown and Muddy Waters, I’ll be even happier, quite frankly, heh heh heh. "

Which isn’t to say the 60-year-old Sinclair isn’t hip to the now sounds — as the editor of the quarterly Blues Access and a Saturday-night DJ on Detroit’s WWOZ, he’s got plenty of faves. He rattles off a few: " Super Chikan, Willie King, all that shit — R.L. [Burnside], T-Model Ford, the North Mississippi Allstars, I like the Word, I like a lot of stuff. Ike Turner’s new record. I got a chance to MC for Ike at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival [which Sinclair helped to found] last weekend. "

Sinclair’s had his own lengthy recording career, delivering jazz- and blues-themed " investigative poetry " over music by a shifting set of musicians usually referred to as the Blues Scholars — a group whose line-up has included, at times, his old MC5 pal Wayne Kramer. Sinclair’s latest disc, Fattening Frogs for Snakes: Delta Sound Suite, was produced by the raunchy elder statesman of talking blues, Andre Williams. " He was one of my childhood idols. Our paths crossed sometime in the past in Detroit, but we hooked up in the ’90s again. My guitarist, who’s my musical director in New Orleans, Bill Lynn — he and Andre are like brothers. They used to hang out together about 25 years ago. So it all came around like a big circle. Andre directed the ensemble and helped create the arrangements and brought in female back-up singers. He’s one of the most colorful figures on two legs. Heh heh! He’s a real American. He really took this project seriously and worked very hard. "

This month, Sinclair is in New England for dates backed by the Boston avant-blues group Devil Gods — a band featuring Phoenix contributor Ted Drozdowski, a long-time supporter who’s put together backing bands for Sinclair and released John’s Steady Rollin’ Man (Tri-Pup, 2000). It would be a good time to see Sinclair now, since he never seems to know where he’ll be next. He’ll ramble a while, speak his piece, and then, as he always has, figure out something else to do. " I pick out where I want to go, and then I figure out how to get there, and then I go there, heh heh heh, " he chuckles. " It sounds simple, but sometimes it’s complicated. "

John Sinclair performs on Saturday at 8 p.m. with the Devil Gods at the Free Street Taverna, 128 Free Street in Portland (207-774-1114); on Sunday at 7 p.m. with the Devil Gods and Willie Alexander at Fishtown Art Space, 1 Center Street in Gloucester (978-283-1381); on Monday with the Devil Gods for the John Lennon Birthday Party at Harpers Ferry, 156 Brighton Avenue in Allston (617-254-7380); on Wednesday at 8 p.m. with Bob Moses opening for the Willem Breuker Kollektief at Johnny D’s, 17 Holland Street in Somerville (617-776-2004); and next Thursday, October 11, at 9 p.m. with the Devil Gods at the Squawk Coffeehouse at Harvard Epworth Methodist Church, 1555 Mass Ave in Harvard Square (617-868-3661).

Issue Date: October 4 - 11, 2001