Blue’s Solo Record Debut Is a Refreshing Beginning

Whether Buddy Blue’s new album (now on sale) becomes a cause celebre of the independent-label hounds or sells enough copies for him to afford a sharper razor, “Guttersnipes ‘N’ Zealots” already succeeds in the area of primary importance to Blue himself: It is not timely in the pejorative sense of the word.

For those aware of the 33-year-old local musician’s predisposition to prole food, dress, libations, art and humor, it was a given that the former Beat Farmer/Jack’s first solo release would reject the high-yecch studio gimmickry that date-stamps today’s canned music. But Blue, who is acutely sensitive to pretentiousness of any stripe, also took pains to avoid the prop-department grit and Sears-jeans rootsiness with which so many soft-skinned youths attempt to transform themselves into South Chicago bluesmen or southern roadhouse rockers of the ‘50s and ‘60s.

For Blue’s label (Rhino’s RNA subsidiary), the goal is to convert listeners well outside the guitarist’s home sphere of San Diego, so the pub-sheet link to the Farmers and Jacks was logical. But “Guttersnipes” doesn’t strain to market itself on the basis of associations (no implied “File Under Roots Rock”). Thus, those familiar with Blue’s past will find the album a nonlinear progression from his work with those bands, and strangers will be able to approach the recording without prejudice. They’ll find it a bracing tonic of stripped-for-action, ‘90s rock, free of clever agenda or college-radio pandering.

One’s first and last impressions of this music are of the same brutal frankness that pervades Blue’s conversation. “Guttersnipes” comes at you like an old Lincoln with no brakes. It’s guitar-based rock that acts both as a funnel for Blue’s favorite sounds--unrefined blues, jazz, R&B--and; as a medium for lyrics that mean something to the singer.

In the opening track, “No Right to Die,” Blue quickly proves that one can tackle major personal and universal themes without the usual messianic baggage. In his reinvention of the dark tone and minor chordal movement found on the Yardbirds’ “Evil Hearted You,” Blue confronts his feelings about his father, a victim of heart and brain-tumor problems who died in 1976 after spending 10 years in a vegetative state. The angry lyric leaves little room for bathos, and little doubt that “Guttersnipes” isn’t for those with weak sensibilities.

In a foreshadowing of the album’s frequent reversals in tone and content, the cut that follows “No Right to Die” acts almost as a palliative. Leading and closing with left jabs of hellfire preaching by Mojo Nixon--over an organ-washed, ‘50s-ish groove reminiscent of Ruben and the Jets--”Hey, Morris” skewers the sanctimonious money-changers whose notions of healing and Christian salvation have more to do with Wall Street than with the Via Dolorosa.

Blue’s political bent is further defined in “Blind Monkeys” and “Gun Sale at the Church.” The former is an indictment of the young, see-no-evil conservatives who probably will ensure George Bush’s reelection; the latter is a harpoon aimed at the flip side of the hypocrisy targeted in “Hey, Morris”: those Sunday-school Americans whose “two main men are Jesus and ol’ John Birch.”

“Gun Sale at the Church” first appeared on the Beat Farmers’ second album, 1986’s “Van Go.” Blue left the band before the record was completed. He later rued the fact that the remaining Farmers added what he considered inappropriate vocal harmonies to the track, which he felt also suffered from inferior playing and bad production. The slightly more countrified version on “Guttersnipes” is a bit faster and boasts a crispness of execution that satisfies the songwriter’s original Blue-print.

The serious overtones of “Guttersnipes” are somewhat mitigated by a stylistic variety that lends the record an almost playful looseness. “Saturday Night” is a juke-joint jump that prominently mentions Bodie’s, the local hangout in which so many of San Diego’s better bands cut their teeth. “Anyway” is a blues- based, ‘50s-style ballad that features gruff, between-the-lines commentary by “Louie, Louie”-author Richard Berry.

As the album moves forward, it actually digs deeper into the attic trunk of American music. “Upsettin’ Me” is a cool-smoldering finger-snapper in the “Fever” mold (with members of the local band Sharkskin on background “ooohs”). “Lazy Blues” trespasses on Tobacco Road territory with its evocation of old-timey jazz, complete with ivory-tinkling by Merrill Moore, trombone-blowing by Steelbone Dick, and frisky clarinet work by Dick Braun. And the record concludes with a good-natured duet featuring Blue and local blues patriarch Tomcat Courtney.

Guest musicians make this an all-hands-on-deck affair that balances celebrity with home-grown familiarity. Contributors also include the Blasters’ Dave Alvin; Mike Keneally; Kyle Ince and Brian Sharkey of Usual Suspects; and members of the Jacks. If it was half as much fun to make “Guttersnipes” as it is to hear it, that must have been a helluva series of sessions.

I’ve always believed that one learns more about a musician by listening to his work than by listening to him talk about it. Accordingly, “Guttersnipes” offers a portrait of Blue that is left incomplete even by interviews, reportorial analyses, rumormongering, or press-release hype. The album is honest, timeless rock ‘n’ roll, and as one listens, Blue emerges as a musician with no delusions of greatness, one with as little interest in setting trends as in following them, one who doesn’t hesitate to widen the spotlight to embrace homeboy performers whom he feels deserve acknowledgement.

Friday night, Blue and the Jacks will perform at a record-release party at the Belly Up Tavern. The concert/celebration begins at 9:15 with opening sets by Usual Suspects and the Rug Burns.

Rumor has it that a number of major labels are looking for a new guitar stud to step into the void created last August when Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a plane crash. Prerequisites for the job would include a firm grasp of various indigenous forms of music, and a sound original enough to attract a following. Apparently, some in the biz feel that string hero could be the Paladins’ Dave Gonzales.

The North County trio played a recent showcase at the Roxy in L.A. for a crowd that included reps from the Warners, Hollywood, MCA, Giant and Capitol labels. Reportedly, the latter two bit hard, and a Capitol exec called the Paladins’ manager the next day to rave about the group in general and Gonzales in particular. Word about the Roxy gig was such that the Charisma label, which didn’t even send a rep, has since expressed interest in the Paladins.

The band’s departure from Chicago-based Alligator Records is a virtual certainty. Whether they re-sign with a major, and whether that presages Gonzales’ rise to stardom, remains to be seen.

GRACE NOTES: Tickets are now on sale for the March 18 show that brings Rick Derringer, D.J. Burns, Nemesis and Psycho Rangers to Park Place; the Godfathers’ March 31 gig at Park Place goes on sale Thursday; Dweezil Zappa’s band, featuring homeboy Mike Keneally, plays the Belly Up on April 5; tickets go on sale Saturday for rock guitar virtuoso Eric Johnson’s April 12 concert at Symphony Hall.