Tim Easton hails from the curious rock ‘n’ roll vortex point of Akron, Ohio, which in part explains his music, which is a very inclusive style of power-pop married to folk. These days he lives near Joshua Tree National Park in California, where he starts his day with a cup of coffee and a walk around the scenic area with his wife and dogs. Living in such a remote area, Easton finds himself with plenty of time. So in addition to writing lots of songs (he says he has two albums' worth of unreleased songs so far) he’s also taken to painting folk art guitars. His work is being exhibited on the walls of Cactus Music’s Record Ranch. It will also become available for purchase at a reception Saturday at 7 p.m. Easton will then hustle from there to the ListeningRoom for a solo performance.

Tim Easton with a real guitar.

29-95: Is there a story as to how you began doing these paintings?

I started it up after I moved to Joshua Tree and my wife opened an art gallery. I guess you could say I had an in. And basically I have a lot more time to do stuff out here in the middle of the desert. It’s pretty relaxed. Your choices are to walk with the dogs or spend your time making stuff. I do a lot of both.

29-95: The desert doesn’t seem like a great place to find scrap wood for your canvases.

No, but I just found some yesterday. I’ve also gone to construction sites with piles of wood that they’re not using. Usually they’ll just let me have it. I’ll probably need to buy some eventually, though.

Poster image for Easton's This Machine Kills Apathy exhibit

29-95: This is probably an obvious question. But why guitars?

They say of writers to write what you know, I just decided to draw what I knew a little bit about. That was guitars. I drew a lot as a kid, but when I stopped getting encouragement, I stopped. I picked it up again, so I guess I’m drawing at the level of a 10-year-old. That’s all that’s going on here, I’m learning to draw again. But I’ve also been walking through art museums all over the world and studying art as well over the years.

An Easton painting inspired by a Buck Owens tune, naturally.

Another Easton guitar . . . inspired by something red-ish.

29-95: I’ve heard musicians say they like doing visual art because it takes them out of a music routine. Do you find the two work that way together?

I’m not so sure about that because often when I’m painting I’ve got some tunes cranked up. All the tunes I was playing for the paintings in Houston are written on the back of the piece. It varies, Big Star to Robert Johnson to T. Rex to jazz.

29-95: Which sounds a lot like the different styles that influenced your music.

Yeah, that makes sense. It’s a big world full of influences out there and I’m doing my best to bring my own stamp to it.

29-95: Your engineer tells me there’s a new album in the works. Will we hear that this year? And will you be playing any of those songs at this show?

Yeah, it’s the brand new album that nobody knows about yet. It’s called Beat the Band. I think I’ll play some of them. The thing is Porcupine was made in 2007 and didn’t come out until 2009. This one will hopefully be faster. I’ve got two albums of songs ready to go, one will be completely acoustic, the other will be a band album. When the Beatles finished tracking a song – not that I’m like the Beatles or anything – they’d put it out; they had a single every three months or something. I know it’s right and wrong to compare anything to the Beatles, but that seems like the right pace, 10 albums in six years. People make fun of Ryan Adams for putting out too many records, but it’s kind of normal. Creative people can’t put out just one record every three years.

29-95: Akron has produced some pretty interesting creative types. What is it about that town that makes people make music?

Yeah, in many ways my head is still rambling around there. I mean, it’s funny to think my paper route included Chrissie Hynde’s old house and both Black Keys. They were just little kids. Joseph Arthur. That was the first job, the one where I saved up to buy a guitar. I think half of Devo went to my high school. I guess it’s something about towns like Detroit or Liverpool, working class towns, factory towns. That has a lot to do with it. Akron was a big factory town, it smelled like rubber. It can bring out something creative in you.

29-95: The painted album sleeves are a nice way to customize an album. When did you start doing those?

Yeah those are going to be part of the show as well. I thought it would be special to do 500 of them. To be honest, that was probably 200 too many. It turned out to be quite a chore. But I got it done, and out of the 500 maybe 300 or 400 came out satisfactorily. Some got smeared by the rough desert wind up here. There are all kinds of things flying around the yard. I guess maybe that makes them special if you get one with sand or dog hair on it.

Easton's Porcupine album with a hand-painted jacket.

TIM EASTON 10:30 p.m. Saturday. ListeningRoom at NiaMoves Studio, 508 Pecore. $12.

This Machine Kills Apathy art show. 7 p.m. Saturday. Cactus Music, 2110 Portsmouth. Free.