Joel Cage likes to talk.

A two-hour interview proves this; but since he can't get to know each and every member of his audience, he'll have to let his music do a little talking for him. A professional musician since age sixteen - this

If being in a band is like a marriage, then breaking up a band could be likened to a separation. "I'd give it more like a divorce, in a sense you have the same sense of freedom you have when you leave a relationship when you leave a band, but when you leave a relationship, one of the first things you feel is fear. Fear based on the fact that you lost

shouldn't be a problem. Cage has performed with Bruce Springsteen, Roy Orbison, Eddie Money and spent 3 1/2 years touring with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. In addition he's formed several of his own bands, including Big Sixteen, Gramolini and The Subterraneans. In 1995 Cage set out alone and you can find him at several clubs in the Lakes and Seacoast regions of New Hampshire.

During a phone interview from Meredith, where he was engrossed in Columbo, Cage discussed his upcoming CD release, the bar scene and music in general. "You describe your music based on the people you're talking to," began the Massachusetts native. "If folkies ask me what I play, I say, 'It's kind of aggressive acousitified folk music.' If rock 'n rollers ask me what I play, I say, 'It's kind of like revved up acoustic music.'"

And if a newspaper reporter asks him the same question? "I would say it's acoustified, revved up folkie rock 'n roll. . . I have to say revved up because if I leave out that term, people automatically put me in a category of the traditional folk singer who on stereotypical terms isn't considered a very energetic style of music."

"I like to be able to talk to people and have them talk to me...literally sit and have a conversation with the audience."---Joel Cage

Cage isn't kidding, his energy on the guitar is what has landed him two showings at the NEMO Showcase in Boston, an audition for Bruce Springsteen, and a loyal core of fans up and down the east coast. His strong songwriting also won him a first place in The USA Songwriter's Contest in 1997. But these days, Cage is concentrating on the release of Nobody, his second solo CD.

Like his first CD, Last Hard Road, Nobody was recorded in Cage's bedroom, but this time instead of an eight-track recorder, a 16-track recorder was used. Co-produced by Jay Williston, Cage assures listeners the more produced CD still has a real grass roots sound. Cage plays 95% of the instruments on the album and wrote all of the songs except for a cover of U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name." "I have a one cover motif, every CD has one cover. It's sort of a personal statement which cover I choose," says Cage whose last CD featured a cover of Eric Clapton's "Bell Bottom Blues."

One might think this seasoned professional would miss the atmosphere of working with an entire band - but that's not the case. "Autonomy is great. It's great to be able to make all the decisions you want to make and have to make instantaneously without seeking the approval of a coworker. A lot of musicians I know who seek to put bands together completely overlook the fact that a band is like a marriage. It takes years to develop the kind of understanding that is required for a band to truly operate as a unit," explained Cage.

the support that you've come to know and depend on, and you feel a little bit naked. Part of what I love about playing solo is that naked feeling."

Even though he plays solo, Cage rarely feels alone because he's got fans. Whether it be the 35-seat Central Ave. Saloon in Dover or the larger Patrick's Pub and Eatery in Gilford, Cage isn't "naked" when he has his audience.

Cage loves to analyze his venues, and he usually has nice things to say about them, as evidenced by the venue listing on his website. Dover's newly opened Central Ave. Saloon is a wonderful venue, according to the musician. "I love bars that size. My image of a room like that, is you put 30 or 40 of your best fans in a room like that and you'd have a tremendous show - everybody's quiet and you have a nice vantage point of everybody in the room.

"I like to be able to talk to people and have them talk to me without them having to yell out something of be a hooting and a hollering. In a room that size you can literally sit and have a conversation with the audience."

That doesn't mean Cage only settles for smaller venues - he wants intimacy and grandeur. "One of my goals is to be able to build that atmosphere and bring it into a place the size of the Orpheum. Just to be able to sit in the Orpheum and have a conversation with someone in the back row and everybody else would be interested in that conversation because they all know you as well as that person in the back row does. I would love to be able to cultivate that kind of Dead Headian feel."

In the Lakes Region, Patrick's Pub has become one of his favorite venues too. "Patrick's is a typically sized and shaped room, but where I sit, the way the speakers work and the way the air moves around, it just so happens that I get a nice quality out of my little PA system. And I get a lot of people who like to hear me play there."

While Cage's CDs may only have one cover on them, he plays more during his gigs, but doesn't get sucked into that crowd-appeasing mentality. "It's very easy when you do what I do to fall into a pattern of doing covers and responding to the tourists and not really cutting them a slice of what it is you are. I'm happy to say I've found a way to get up there and play in these bars and still put on the same kind of shows that I put on at Passim (a Boston club). . . It's great because I get to be myself and they get to be themselves."

"That's why one of the things I'm proud of is that I can go into a place like a sports bar and build a little bubble around myself and develop a vibe that is symbiotic between me and them. But it's different every night, one night you get an audience of people sitting there staring at you, and other nights you get people just drinking their beer with their backs to you.

"To me it's a great training ground because you build up a muscle that you don't really build when all you do is play open mikes and coffeehouses. I know a lot of musicians who refuse to go to bars. I love bars because I love the kind of people that go to bars."