When a catastrophe occurs I'm forced to remember that in times of loss and woe, some of us forget how to speak for ourselves. It's times like this that songs say what we can't. I find myself carrying certain albums with me when I'm about to step out on an emotional limb--like packing a Band-Aid in a pocket before stepping onto rocky pavement in new shoes. Maybe that's why, when I dug through my bag on a return flight from some small bother, I found that I'd packed Joseph Arthur's Come to Where I'm From without thinking. It was like the Band-Aid I knew I'd need on the journey back. Come to Where I'm From is an album I once told everyone about, but now keep to myself. I've listened to it so many times it feels like a part of me.

That's the kind of songwriter Arthur is: intensely personal and intuitive. He somehow possesses a voice that speaks for those of us who've given up believing anyone understands us. And now that I've heard his latest, Redemption's Son, I'm in awe that he's done it again.

Arthur is an accomplished musician and painter. "It's a nervous habit," he admits modestly with a laugh, confessing that the whole time we've been talking on the phone he's been painting. He's just turned 31, and views age as a trophy these days. "It used to really freak me out every year I got older in my mid-20s. But now I think, 'Man, I'm four years older than Hendrix was when he died.' Plus, I've made some records and I don't feel like, 'Oh my God, I'm 31 and what have I done with my life?' It's like, 'Okay, I'm 31, and some shit could be better and some shit could be a lot worse, and good going!'"

Arthur blames "record-company crap" as the reason his albums have come out earlier in Europe than the U.S. Entertainment Weekly called Come to Where I'm From 2000's Album of the Year, and many notable critics LOVE Arthur's albums. "But record companies don't give a shit," he says. "[My stuff's] all just cute shit to them. Maybe in 'the world' that means something, but in their world it means nothing, because that's not what they believe sells records. That critics love you will keep you from getting dropped, but that's almost worse because at that point you want to get dropped, because you just want to be free to do new shit."

Long after I'd become a fan of Arthur, I realized many of his songs speak about various forms of addiction. "I'm not preaching," he explains. "I think everyone's got a personal choice to make and there's no one way to do it. Anything is valid. For me, sobriety generally is a better choice, but that's not true for everybody. I just can't get dogmatic about anything. Who's to say William Burroughs shouldn't have been a lifelong junkie? It worked for him, that's what he did, and he made a cultural contribution. I mean, fuck it, life involves addictions even if they aren't about drugs or alcohol. I've been sober for long periods of time and my shit just transfers to other shit. Maybe it's better shit, but it's still more shit."

Arthur will play EMP's JBL Theater on Saturday, October 12 ($15). Rusty Willoughby opens.

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And PFFFT! She was gone. Kerri Harrop has parted ways with Chop Suey. Also, Counter Commons has left I-Spy, and former Touch and Go publicist Scott Giampino (whom I adore) will make Seattle a finer place when he takes over promotions for the Showbox.

kathleen@thestranger.com