For a man who has released four albums of songs drawing openly on autobiography and then criss-crossed America performing them in front of live audiences, singer/songwriter David Dondero is remarkably unforthcoming on the phone. His responses are often the bare minimum: Yes, no, maybe, with an occasional qualification. Most of the time he sounds as if he’s having a very private conversation with his shoes.

That description might surprise some of his close friends, as well as those who have witnessed Dondero in concert or heard the flow of interstitial banter on his latest disc, Live at The Hemlock. But in a way, it makes sense. He’s answered many potential questions before they were ever asked. In songs such as “Michael Ranes” (about a wayward old friend now serving time for cocaine possession) and “Call Me ‘D’” (about an Irishman whose name was always mispronounced by Americans), the names haven’t even been changed, and the protest song “Pre-Invasion Jitters” leaves no grey areas in his political philosophy. Like an exacting schoolteacher, Dondero may not see the point in repeating himself for the folks who didn’t quite catch it the first time.

Recorded in January of last year at The Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco, Live at The Hemlock is the closest Dondero gets to repeating himself. The fourteen-song set culls tracks from all of his solo albums – The Pity Party (1999) Spider West Myshin and a City Bus (2000), Shooting at the Sun With a Water Gun (2001) and The Transient (2003) – and, as a bonus of sorts, includes the aforementioned “Pre-Invasion Jitters.” This previously unreleased track has already been circulating on the Internet on account of its in-your-face antiwar message.