'A.I.' winner Lee DeWyze brings his earnest mix of 'Oil & Water' to World Cafe Live

Rough-and-rustic singer-songwriter Lee DeWyze may call his piercing new album

Oil & Water

, but that immiscible combination also describes the oddball situation that defines the 29-year-old artist. He's an earnest, homespun post-folkie who just happened to win that most plastic of tokens, 2010's ninth season of

American Idol

on Fox.

On Feb. 15 at World Cafe Live, DeWyze will set out to show you how little A.I. recognition changed him. He's certainly got proof in stoic new blues like the richly appointed "Stone," or the starkly rural, Johnny Cash-like "Blackbird Song," which appeared like a punch in the face during a 2014 episode of AMC's zombie thriller The Walking Dead.

As a young artist, DeWyze came out of Illinois a fully formed Nebraska-era Springsteen-, Paul Simon- and Cat Stevens-inspired songwriter. Mention the show that made him famous and DeWyze bristles a bit at the idea that his work is ringed with the halo of glossy pop.

"Realistically, I was a songwriter and a singer before American Idol," he said. "I loved music, before and after. What it comes down to is people taking the time to actually listen to my music. Believe me, I understand not every artist or song that has come from American Idol is awesome. But an artist like me, who has demonstrated over the years what it is I really do . . . yes, it can be annoying when someone boils [down] what kind of artist I am, or what it is I do, based on" the show.

DeWyze is as honest as he is pragmatic about his post-Idol victory lap for major label RCA Records, the low-selling, 2010 album Live It Up - "There are over 30 million votes cast. Did I sell 30 million records?" - versus the lustrous folk-rock of 2013's Frames on the smaller Vanguard Records and Oil & Water on the folk-reggae label Shanachie.

"I think going from a small indie back in the day [his pre-Idol recordings] to an RCA type studio, to my own studio in North Hollywood producing and recording and writing, there's a freedom that comes with great fear and excitement," he said.

Speaking of fear, Walking Dead fans got a little taste of DeWyze's dusty prairie ambience and sandy voice with the spare "Blackbird Song." He was literally playing the song during a break at a sound check when his manager Brett Radin said, "Is that the Walking Dead song you've been writing?"

DeWyze had challenged himself to come up with a zombie murder ballad for the top-rated AMC series. He said he "thought about what I would do if I lived through that [a zombie apocalypse], just got into the right headspace, started to write, recorded it with my violin player Paul Cartwright, and finished it in about two hours."

Next thing you know, manager and artist pitched the song to the network, and it was instantly accepted. "It was SO awesome to watch that episode [Season 4, episode 13] with my friends and family," DeWyze said. The track also was featured on The Walking Dead - AMC Original Soundtrack, Vol. 2.

The journey that is his new Oil & Water - the simmering, highly orchestrated "Stone" in particular - deals with another set of woeful circumstances that DeWyze has considering: not the mythical existence of the undead, but rather "playing with the idea of life and death, and where and why we matter in between."

Hardly the stuff of a typical American Idol winner, but rather a guy who's spent his artistic life looking to soothe an itch he just can't scratch otherwise. Said DeWyze, "I feel like this Oil & Water album is a release for me definitely. Musically, emotionally, all of the above."

Lee DeWyze, Wakey Wakey and Shayna Leigh play 8 p.m. Monday at World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St. $17 ($50 VIP). 215-222-1400, philly.worldcafelive.com.