‘BLONDIE’ SINGS BLUES WITH STYLE

Close your eyes and you’ll swear you have just stumbled into a Kansas City roadhouse right out of the 1940s.

The songs are gut-slamming blues standards like Willie Dixon’s “I’m Ready,” B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone,” Howlin’ Wolf’s “Little Red Rooster” and Muddy Waters’ “Mojo Workin’.”

The singer’s voice is rough and gravelly. The way he grunts, moans and twists around the words, you would think he’s being tortured into confessing his life story.

The guitar sounds as though it’s on fire. A slow burn at first, then a mad blaze of scorching leads, slide riffs and chords.

The rhythm section is heavy and deliberate. You can’t keep from moving your feet as the beat shifts from a slow shuffle into a fast-paced stomp.

Open your eyes and ask yourself, What’s wrong with this picture?

The singer-guitarist isn’t some wizened old black man who has taken up the blues after a lifetime of picking cotton.

Instead, he’s a young white dude named “Blonde” Bruce Thorpe, who looks like he would be more at home in some spiffy disco.

His back-up band seems equally out of place. The bass player even wears a Hawaiian shirt and--get this--a gold necklace.

The crowd inside isn’t your typical blues audience, either. Most of them are also young and stylishly dressed, and more prone to sipping Corona than downing straight shots of Wild Turkey.

And the setting is about as far removed from some out-of-the-way roadhouse as you can get. Jose Murphy’s is a block from the ocean in Pacific Beach.

If the sun’s still up, the shirtless throng on the outside patio keeps one eye on the stage and the other on the beachfront bikini contingent.

For the past 16 months, the “Blonde” Bruce Band has been bringing the blues to Jose Murphy’s every Sunday afternoon from 4 to 8 p.m. Visually, they are Southern California “to the max,” you might say. But musically, they’re Kansas City all the way.

Can a white guy do justice to what is essentially a black man’s music?

“This skin thing has never really bothered me,” said Thorpe, 33. “You are what you are, I guess, and I happen to be a white guy who loves the blues more than anything else.

“It’s what I feel, it’s what’s in my fingers, and it’s what’s in my heart. Everyone has his own catalyst for singing and playing the blues, and I’m no exception.

“I’ve almost been killed three times. I spent my first six months in San Diego living in my car. And at the age of 33, I’m only earning about as much money as a first-year secretary.”

He laughed. “So you see, I’ve done my share of suffering. I’ve paid my dues, and I’m still paying my dues today.”

Thorpe’s fans don’t have any questions about his authenticity, either.

“He sure knows how to start a Sunday afternoon party,” said Kelly Morrison, a 23-year-old promotions assistant who hasn’t missed a “Blonde” Bruce performance at Jose Murphy’s in three months.

“He’s an excellent singer and guitarist,” she added. “He sounds and feels just like an old blues guy.”

Doorman Lap Napoleon, 32, agrees. “He puts a new kick into the blues,” Napoleon said. “He’s absolutely authentic, and the beach crowd just loves him.”

A native of Chicago, Thorpe’s first taste of the blues came early in life. As a toddler, he would wander across the street from his home and listen to an old blues duo who played each day outside a mom-and-pop store for tips and beer.

“I didn’t really know what they were doing,” Thorpe said, “but I loved it just the same.”

Thorpe soon taught himself to play the guitar by listening to old blues records, but it wasn’t until he was 16 that he got up the nerve to play in public.

“The only people I had seen playing the blues were black, and I felt out of place,” Thorpe said. “But then Johnny Winter came along in the late 1960s, and I took one look at him and said, ‘He’s blonder than me, he’s whiter than me, and if he can play this great music, so can I.’ ”

For most of the 1970s, Thorpe played throughout the Midwest, mostly at seedy bars in the black parts of town. He moved to San Diego in 1981 as a member of the Hurricanes, and for several years the group struggled to find work.

In August, 1985, Thorpe said, he decided to set out on his own. Luckily, the national blues revival--which has made big stars of such artists as the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Robert Cray--hit San Diego around that same time.

Within months, Thorpe said, he no longer had any problems finding work. As a trio, the “Blonde” Bruce Band has played the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, Bunbury’s in Mira Mesa and McDick’s in Ocean Beach.

For their weekly shows at Jose Murphy’s, they augment their basic guitar-bass-drums line-up with a saxophonist and a harmonica player. Their reputation is such that Kim Wilson, founder of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, recently sat in with them for a jam session at McDick’s.

“This whole blues revival is a lot more pronounced now than when I first came to town,” Thorpe said. “Just look at the Fabulous Thunderbirds--they kicked around for 13 years, and now all of a sudden they have a hit single and a video on MTV.

“People want to hear real music again. When bands like the T-Birds--and us--go on stage, we’re not overloaded with synthesizers, echo effects and other crapola.

“It’s just our instruments and our amplifiers. We play only what’s in our souls.”