Fruitful Cross-Pollination : Future Looks Promising for Scarecrows, Burning Tree

Like bees in a garden, members of the Scarecrows and Burning Tree have been flitting in and out of each other’s bands for several years.

This musical cross-pollination has been fruitful. Today, the two bands, with roots in Orange County and neighboring Cerritos, are showing promise with gritty, blues-based rock. Both offer a contrast to the image-conscious, metal-alloyed hard rock that has become the Los Angeles rock scene’s most lucrative export, thanks to acts such as the chart-topping Guns N’ Roses.

While most of the young hard rockers that have emerged from Los Angeles take their cues from the ‘70s band, Aerosmith (which winds up a two-night stand tonight with Guns N’ Roses at the Pacific Amphitheatre), their contemporaries in the Scarecrows and Burning Tree have dug deeper, going back to older, more distinctive sources from ‘60s rock and the blues tradition.

“To me, (they are) real cosmetic, while we’re trying to go for a lot of feeling, a lot of soul in our music,” David Pedroza, leader of the Scarecrows, said of the current crop of Southern California glamour bands. The Rolling Stones and Lou Reed loom large in the Scarecrows’ garage-rock sound. The band’s repertoire also includes a revved-up recasting of “32-20 Blues” by the great ‘30s bluesman, Robert Johnson.

Marc Ford, founder and guitarist of Burning Tree, also says he hasn’t felt tempted to cash in on the metal trend. “I never caught on to it. A lot of the new music is kind of brainless to me. No feeling, no soul.”

It’s not surprising that Pedroza, 23, and Ford, 22, should have the same outlook, right down to using the same words-- feeling and soul-- to express what they value most in music. They play together informally as an acoustic duo, and as part of an occasional blues foursome called Shake Baby Shake.

Since early this year, when he launched Burning Tree with drummer Doni Grey and bassist Mark (Mud) Dutton, Ford also has played an integral role in the revival of the Scarecrows, which came back at the start of 1988 after a one-year layoff. While Burning Tree is his primary commitment, Ford has contributed to the Scarecrows’ demo recordings and played in many of the band’s live shows.

There are other links that entwine the bands. Grey, the Burning Tree drummer, served a hitch with Pedroza in the Scarecrows in the mid-’80s. And Pedroza briefly was a sideman in Exobiota, the former band of Burning Tree bassist Dutton.

“We’re incestuous,” Dutton said with a laugh.

In some cases, sharing a guitarist with another band could foster tension and jealousy. But Dutton said that isn’t the case. He and Grey also play with musicians outside of Burning Tree, with the understanding that all three members’ primary commitment is to Burning Tree.

Ford thinks the overlap between Burning Tree and the Scarecrows has been natural, and productive. “Since we’re all friends and we all have certain ideas about writing songs and certain sounds, we’ve been available to help each other out. It’s good that way. We’ve taught each other a lot and learned a lot by playing in so many different situations. I’ll always want to play with the Scarecrows, but not in a permanent situation.”

Ford got a workout one night last month when the two bands shared a bill at Night Moves in Huntington Beach. With Burning Tree, he deftly negotiated the difficult role of guitarist in a power trio: driving the rhythm, taking concise solos, then falling crisply back into the ensemble. While he always seemed to be up to something interesting with his Jimi Hendrix-inspired guitar work, Ford didn’t try to dominate the band by overplaying. There was plenty of room for Grey and Dutton, both activist players, to make their presence felt in a band that often recalls Humble Pie, the popular British blues-rock outfit from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.

With the Scarecrows, Ford wove loose but edgy Stones-style guitar leads around the drums-and-bass teamwork of brothers Mike and Dave Petrus. Pedroza’s singing, like Lou Reed’s or Neil Young’s, made up in fire and feeling what it lacked in smoothness and range.

Among the Scarecrows’ strongest numbers are “Ten Quaaludes,” a wry song of adolescent disillusionment that Pedroza says was inspired partly by J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” and partly by his own observations of friends and acquaintances using drugs as a sometimes fatal escape from adolescent pressures.

“32-20 Blues,” a macho vengeance song, comes across with more humor than bile in a Scarecrows’ version that is engaging because it shows a willingness to have fun with blues sources rather than simply reiterate them. “Secret Melody” is another fine Pedroza original, a greasy rocker about a ne’er-do-well who finds he has at least one thing going for him: the ability to express his feelings in a love song.

The Scarecrows have had an up-and-down existence since Pedroza started the band five years ago. After a series of lineup changes and disappointments, including the shelving of a 1985 album for lack of funds, he decided to put the band on hold in 1987.

“I was just burned out,” Pedroza said in an interview at his home in Buena Park. “I’d given up hope.”

When a former Scarecrows guitarist called last January, saying the band could land a lucrative gig on a yacht, Pedroza regrouped the band with the Petrus brothers. The gig fell through and musical differences developed between guitarist Curt Fike and the rest of the band, Pedroza said. But friends were encouraging about the new songs he had written, and he decided to give the Scarecrows another try.

Part of the reason, Pedroza said, was the success of the L.A. glam-metal bands. “I’d seen these bands like Lions and Ghosts, Poison, Guns N’ Roses, who were around when the first generation of Scarecrows was around, and we were on the same level. Then I saw them with record deals, lots of money, lots of girls. I said, ‘I’ve got to get this back together.’ ”

Mike Petrus said: “Those bands stuck together; they stuck it out; they kept going.” The challenge for the Scarecrows now, he and Pedroza said, is to find stability and wait until the glam-metal kick loses its steam and record companies start searching for the next wave in L.A. rock.

“We’re the most professional and experienced we’ve ever been,” said Pedroza, who claims he would “rather be a bum, a transient living on a train” than pursue a normal 9-to-5 career. “We’ve been through a lot. Now we know what’s going on.”

Knowing that they can’t count on Marc Ford to be available all the time, the Scarecrows are looking for a full-time lead guitarist to consolidate that stability.

“It doesn’t have to be someone as good as Marc. As long as they have the interest and the feel,” Pedroza said. Even if Burning Tree were to break up, he said, “I don’t think Marc would just run to us. He wants to be out there in front, pushing all his talent. He can keep busy with other things, because he’s got so many contacts in L.A. He’s doing so well; I’m proud of him because he’s making a name for himself.”

Burning Tree already has had one offer from a label, Ford and Dutton said, and they feel that interest is growing among record company talent scouts. Part of the reason, Ford said, is that Burning Tree doesn’t sound like yet another band trying to copy Guns N’ Roses.

“It’s a fad, and I’m more inclined to stay away from things that are fashionable,” the tall, lanky guitarist said. “I think we’ve lucked out in that. The record companies are looking at us as people who are making a step forward, instead of going along with the fashion.”