Mark Lanegan: A Secret Rock Star Still Shines Darkly

Though Lanegan hasn't live in Seattle for years, he's remained connected to the deeply loyal scene that gave him his start, where future rock stars shared group houses and many side projects. Mad Season was one of those, a bluesy group uniting vocalist Layne Staley of Alice in Chains with guitarist Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin and Walkabouts bassist John Baker Saunders. Mad Season only recorded one album, and Staley and Saunders eventually both lost their lives to heroin — a habit that Lanegan also had and eventually broke. This track, one of three songs Staley never completed that features new lyrics and vocals by Lanegan, is a highlight on the treats-packed Above reissue: a spiritual resurrection conjured by the prayers of a friend.

Even if you're not into his heavy moan, you've got to admit that Lanegan has great taste. His solo career began as an aborted Leadbelly tribute project also featuring Nirvana's Krist Novoselic and Kurt Cobain. In 1999 he released Field Songs, an expertly curated exploration of American roots music that married gospel to country and California punk. And he's always popping up on the most intriguing covers projects. This reinterpretation of a traditional folk song appears on a split single with the 1971 version by Karen Dalton, whose bent alto is like the female version of Lanegan's own sandy baritone. It's part of a colored-vinyl singles series celebrating the ten-year anniversary of label Light in the Attic.

The rumbling low notes Lanegan favors inevitably invoke a certain masculine archetype: even when he's singing, he's the strong, silent type. He's a classic match for a certain kind of whispery-mysterious feminine duet partner. Mostly, Lanegan has explored this terrain with the Scottish vocalist Isobel Campbell, with whom he's made three albums that earned the pair many comparisons to Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood. Recently Lanegan's expanded his pool of muses, recording a mesmerizing version of The xx's "Crystalised" with English singer Martina Topley-Bird and appearing twice on Little Beast, the adventurous new album by Swede Christine Owman. "Familiar Act" is one of those, a sneaky little number about the silk tethers of romantic abuse.

Nobody, including the singer himself, would claim that Lanegan formed his style from uncut cloth. Plenty of forebears, from Johnny Cash to Scott Walker, have journeyed into the same sonic and spiritual abyss. The Mark Lanegan Band's current tour supporting Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds puts him literally onstage with one such elder. They're giving fans a major treat by dueting on one of the most beloved cuts from the Seeds' 1990 album The Good Son.

Over the course of his long career, Lanegan has cultivated many blood-brother bonds. He's teamed up with Afghan Whigs leader Greg Dulli in the after-hours commiserating sessions of The Gutter Twins, releasing the album Saturnalia in 2008. He's served as consigliere to Josh Homme in Queens of the Stone Age for more than a decade, and will appear on the desert rock band's new album, to be released later this year. And he's recorded a powerful, meditative new abum with his longtime friend, the multi-instrumentalist Duke Garwood. Black Pudding comes out in May; on this track, Lanegan speaks in the voice of a dead soldier as Garwood plays supernatural taps behind him.

Unlike many blues-besotted rockers, Lanegan doesn't limit himself to the standard guitar-bass-drums-maybe-horns configurations. He's long pursued collaborations with producers more known for beats than for killer riffs. He basically became a bandmate of the British electronica duo the Soulsavers in the late 2000s, extensively recording with them and joining them on tour. In 2010 he released a track with the pioneering trip-hop act U.N.K.L.E and last year he showed up on the album Songs That Make Sense by Maciej Werk, a veteran of the Polish industrial music scene, to record this steely, funky duet.

Here's a happy little ditty that proves Lanegan can go bright. It's from Dog Train, an album of songs by children's author Sandra Boynton and composer Michael Ford, and it proves that Mr. Gravitas can be as goofy as Dan Zanes when he wants to be. (Also in the family-fun category: Last year's outstanding holiday album, available only on tour but up on YouTube.) Lanegan must have enjoyed this outing, because he's slated to sing the title track on Boynton's latest musical effort, Frog Trouble, to be released in September. We'll finally get to hear what Dark Mark thinks it's like being green.