POP MUSIC : The Dynatones: Label Them Relentless

The Dynatones’ 10-year quest for a record deal, said drummer Walter Salwitz Jr., has been a lot like Harry S. Truman’s whistle-stop campaign for the presidency. “We decided to go straight to the people,” Salwitz said.

“Everyone told us we should go into the studio for six months to rehearse and crank out demonstration tapes, and then sit around and wait for the label to come to us,” Salwitz said. After all, that’s how most new bands go about getting signed.

“But instead . . . we immediately hit the road, and we’ve been traveling and performing together, all over the country, ever since.”

Over the past decade, the Dynatones, who appear tonight at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, have prided themselves on being “the hardest-working band in show business,” Salwitz said.

The San Francisco “blue-eyed soul” group has played an average of 250 concert dates a year, ranging from ski lodges at Lake Tahoe to punk-rock nightclubs in New York City, from Kansas City roadhouses to Texas honky-tonks.

Eventually, the Dynatones’ populist approach to landing a record deal--and a big one, at that--was as successful as Truman’s populist approach to winning the presidency.

Two months ago, mighty Warner Bros. Records released the group’s debut album, “Shameless,” a spirited collection of rhythm-and-blues originals burning with the fire of James Brown and brimming with the passion of the Young Rascals.

Lending a hand in the studio were such notable musicians as Stax-Volt vet Steve Cropper on guitar and Kim Wilson of blues revivalists the Fabulous Thunderbirds on harmonica.

Although the album’s first single, “Italian Shoes,” will not be out until later this month, “Shameless” is already getting regular air play on more than 50 major-market radio stations throughout the United States.

“We’re essentially a modern ‘white soul’ band trying to bring back good, simple, unaffected music, without electronics or computers or synthesizers or overdubs,” Salwitz said.

“Our music has the basic beat of the old rhythm-and-blues stuff from the 1950s and ‘60s, but everything laid on top is from the ‘80s. Our originals are written from the standpoint of today’s experiences and today’s sound; we’re not trying to re-create anything, we’re merely trying to expand on it.

“I guess you could say we’re following the natural course soul music would have taken had there never been a British Invasion or a disco detour.”

The Dynatones were formed in 1978, after Salwitz and several other members of blues great Charlie Musselwhite’s backup band split to “start working on our own ideas.”

“Charlie was doing strictly Chicago blues, and we wanted to do more rock and rhythm-and-blues,” Salwitz recalled. “We were used to making steady money with Charlie, but, once we went out on our own, we found we had to work two or three times as hard because nobody knew who we were.

“So we literally started from the ground up, traveling and performing all over the place by the skin of our teeth. A good week for us was $100 a man, if we didn’t blow up the truck.”

As a result, the Dynatones suffered through personnel changes in their early years, Salwitz said, until one day he found himself the only original member left.

Through continued nonstop touring, however, the Dynatones gradually built a national following and began earning enough money to keep their lineup fairly stable, Salwitz added.

Indeed, bassist Randy McDonald from San Diego is one of the group’s newest members--and he’s been with them for more than five years.

“I was a fan before they offered me a job,” McDonald said. “I was working with this oldies band in Park City, Utah, and they came through town a couple of times and really grabbed me with their sound.

“The next thing I knew, they were calling me for a gig.”

The Dynatones’ first big break came in 1985 when the Miller Brewing Co. asked them to join its Genuine Draft Band Network, a sponsorship program that in the past had helped such other fledgling groups as the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

“Out of nowhere, along comes this gigantic corporation, offering to pull us up with their big promotional budget,” Salwitz said. “They featured us in a bunch of print and radio ads and also hooked us up with some real nice equipment sponsorships.”

“Joining the Miller network gave us much higher visibility than we had ever had before,” McDonald added. “And, the more people heard about us, the more they wanted to come out to our shows and see what we were all about.”

The Dynatones’ second big break came less than a year ago when Warner Brothers offered them a deal on the basis of their growing repute as one of the most popular unsigned touring bands in the country.