Non-Traditional Bandy Abandons Barroom Tunes

Dating back to the first recorded twang, country music and its practitioners have been associated with drinking, carousing and honky-tonkin’, and Moe Bandy claims he “used to roar with the best of them.”

But with the current social climate and its emphasis on the dangers of alcohol and substance abuse, honky-tonk anthems might be becoming a thing of the past, and the man who voiced “Honky Tonk Amnesia,” “Barstool Mountain” and other soused salutes doesn’t mind at all.

“I don’t think it’s possible to do that music today,” the Mississippi native said, reached last week in Casper, Wyo. (where 33-degree weather had him looking forward to California dates including the one tonight at the Southampton in San Clemente). “And I feel better singing more positive songs.

“I think in the last few years the whole music industry really has changed. When I first got in the business--my first hit was in ‘73--it was definitely a time when everybody was singing drinking and cheating songs. But our country has changed over the years. . . . We’re in the middle of a major fight about alcohol and drug abuse.”

The 45-year-old singer gave up drinking nearly six years ago “and generally cleaned up my life,” not because he was considering the influence he held in the public eye but “because it just whipped me.”

Still, he continued, “I’m not one to preach about it, but I do think we have a responsibility to be careful what we sing about, because people really take our music to heart and they believe it.”

In the 16 years since he waxed “I Started Hatin’ Cheatin’ Songs Today,” Bandy has enjoyed more than 30 Top 10 singles. He is due to release his fourth greatest-hits package in January and says its hits are perhaps a bit greater than the others.

“It’s all of the hits I’ve had on Curb, which is my favorite material. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve done in the last few years more than anything. Back when I was with CBS (Bandy switched labels in 1986), I was required to record two albums a year, and if I did one with Joe Stampley, that would be three albums a year. That would mean trying to find 30 good songs, and you just can’t do it. The last few years I’ve been recording one album a year, and that’s so much better.”

The hits collection will also have three new tunes including one, “She Has No Memory of Me,” that was written by and recorded with Randy Scruggs. Bandy was so pleased with the collaboration that he intends to record his next album at Scruggs’ studio, with Scruggs producing.

Though some of Bandy’s favorite country artists are of the new-traditionalist school, he has moved away from that sound.

“I think country music, and all music, goes in cycles,” he said. “In 1973 I was the new traditionalist in country music, one of them. Now it’s happening all over again. . . . “It’s funny, but when I went back and tried to do the real traditional sound that I had done for so many years, radio kind of said, ‘Well, we’ve heard you do that.’ So I had to go out and be a totally new Moe Bandy. . . .

“I think it was a change for the better. I think now I’m cutting the stuff that really is me.”

One thing Bandy won’t be cutting soon is any more of the wild-haired duets he did with Stampley (past gems included the Boy George-era “Where’s the Dress,” which had an accompanying video of the two in drag).

“We work about three or four dates a year. I don’t think I’d care to do it again, as far as recording. . . . It’s not the times now for having that good-ol’-boy, raisin’-hell image like we did. But those three or four shows we do a year, boy, they’re hot.”

Moe Bandy sings tonight at 7:30 at the Southampton Theatre, 140 Avenida Pico, San Clemente. Tickets: $18. Information: (714) 979-5511.