MONTANA’S MUSIC TAKES ‘LOT OF GUTS’

“Country” Dick Montana, the belchin’, beer-guzzlin’ drummer and occasional singer with San Diego’s celebrated Beat Farmers, is plumb tuckered out.

For nearly a year, he and his band have been on the road, stirring up audiences throughout the United States and Europe with the raw and hungry sounds of “American roots” music: a back-to-the-basics melding of old-time country, 1950s rockabilly and primitive rock ‘n’ roll.

On their infrequent nights off, the Beat Farmers usually were in the recording studio, laying down tracks for their third album, “The Pursuit of Happiness,” on the Curb/MCA Records label.

Finally, the grueling tour is over and the album is in the can. And until the Beat Farmers begin their next tour upon the album’s June 24 release, they all have plenty of time to mellow out a bit.

The irrepressible Montana, however, prefers to mellow out on stage. So along with fellow Beat Farmer Joey Harris and twins David and Douglas Farage, formerly of pioneering San Diego new wave group DFX2, he’s now plying the local bar circuit as an acoustic performer, “just to unwind,” he said.

Together, the four perform all-acoustic sets of “brutal original ballads” and country-Western and pop tear-jerkers “that our parents handed down to us,” Montana said.

“We’re doing songs nobody else would dare play,” he added. “We’re not afraid to admit what we like, because we all have impeccable musical tastes--and we’ve got a lot of guts.”

It takes guts to wail out “Delilah,” a big hit for Tom Jones in the late 1960s, while the rest of the band simulates the horn parts on kazoos.

It takes guts to sing seriously such equally schmaltzy tunes as George Jones’ “If Drinkin’ Don’t Kill Me,” the Everly Brothers’ “Brand New Heartache,” Phil Ochs’ “Gas Station Women” and Lefty Frizzell’s “How Far Down Can I Go.”

That last song’s chorus: “Tonight it’s a bottle; tomorrow, what then?/Anything that brings a happy glow/I brought many a tear to my mama’s eye/How far down can I go?”

“Contrary to what people might think, I do have a sensitive side,” Montana deadpanned. “I’m sensitive everywhere I’m not calloused.

“A lot of people think we’re making fun of these old songs, but we’re not. We really do like ballads that are heartfelt and sincere and that tug at your heartstrings.

“That’s something that might surprise people, but we do all our songs very seriously--even though we’re always trying to get the crowd to shut up.”

It takes guts to dress like forlorn cowboys. Montana looks like Marshal Matt Dillon, of television’s “Gunsmoke,” after a particularly twisted night, while the three other band members resemble refugees from a Dodge City card room.

And it takes guts to let the audience name your band each night. Throughout the show, Montana asks the crowd to scribble suggested names on cocktail napkins and then pass them on to a waitress. At the end of each night, audience response determines the winner.

“This band will never have a name,” Montana said. “It’s too much fun letting the audience give us a different one each night.”

Montana and his three cohorts perform fairly regularly at the Mandolin Wind in Hillcrest. Other bookings include a Saturday performance at McDick’s in Ocean Beach and “a big one” May 28 at the Palomino in North Hollywood.

“That’s a very prestigious club,” Montana said. “They somehow got wind of what we were doing and called us up.

“And what amazes me the most is that not only are they going to pay us, but they’re going to let us drink as much as we want.

“Now, that is pretty unheard of.”