No Matter How You Describe It, Bordertown Sound Is a Winner

When used to pinpoint musical style, even well-aimed descriptives tend to hook or slice away from their intended pigeonhole; they are either too limiting, too broad or just generally misleading. In that regard, the local band Bordertown makes an especially elusive target.

Recently, the North County-based band took top honors in the Best Contemporary category of the San Diego Music Awards. To many, the term “contemporary” connotes currency, and yet Bordertown is not a big-hair/baggy-clothes band, a hyperkinetic worldbeat-rap posse, a neo-psychedelic-pop group, a robotic dance band or a speed-metal gang.

Bordertown--David Beldock, 35, (guitars, keyboards, vocals); Dan Connor, 46 (guitars, vocals); Glenn Goodwin, 42 (fretless bass, vocals), and Cici Porter, 33 (guitar, percussion, vocals)--will perform downtown tonight at the B Street California Grill and Bar.

Critics frequently refer to the group as a “folk-rock” band, and they do incorporate elements of both. But one also hears blues, jazz, country and pop in their music, so anyone expecting another Alarm, a West Coast R.E.M. or a reincarnation of the Byrds might find that delineation less than adequate.

Suffice it to say that Bordertown is one of the best purveyors of original music in San Diego. And furthermore, it excels in the one undertaking that, it is hoped, will always be considered timely: good songwriting.

“That’s one thing I have to say about this band--that it’s got great writers and great songs,” Beldock said in an interview earlier this week. “Of course, I say that with all humility.”

The guitarist self-consciously laughed at his own candor, but his assessment of the group’s talents has been validated in some pretty high places. On the strength of its song, “Someday,” Bordertown made it to the finals of Musician magazine’s 1990 “Best Unsigned Band” contest, which drew 3,000 entries from around the world. The same song earned the quartet first place in the 1991 MiraCosta College Songwriter’s Contest. According to Beldock, such acclaim is gratifying, albeit somewhat inconsequential.

“We got a lot of good clippings for the press kit out of our placement in the Best Unsigned Band contest but not much more,” he said. “Still, it was an incredible shot in the arm. We always thought we were good, but to hear that you’re good from someone like Musician magazine felt great.”

A friendly, appreciative sort whose speech retains a smidgen of the New York accent he left behind years ago, Beldock recounted the often very public ups and downs of the band’s nine years of music-making, its sometimes volatile blend of personalities and the eclecticism that is the most apparent product of their disparate tastes. Connor, he said, was Bordertown’s first seed.

“Dan had been playing solo at the Steve Powers craft festivals throughout the Southwest and Northern California, and, in 1982, he was asked to put a band together. Glenn and I had played in the Bob Long Band for a long time, and Glenn introduced me to Dan. Then, just when we decided we needed a female vocalist, Cici showed up.”

The foursome played the craft-festival circuit for about three years, during which time their musical influences were most pronounced.

“I really liked the Kingston Trio when I was a kid, and later Loggins and Messina,” he said. “Glenn and Cici are really into the Neville Brothers, and we all have been influenced to a great extent by Little Feat. In the beginning, one of the things I loved about this band was that we could do anything. We were all over the map. But I think that got too confusing for people. Lately, we’ve been trying to sound a little less scattered.”

Beldock himself has some difficulty nailing down the band’s sound, but one quickly learns at a Bordertown performance that the group’s very unpredictability is one of its most endearing traits. At a recent gig at Elario’s in La Jolla, a single set covered more ground than most bands can even envision.

There was the unabashed folk of “Feel the Wind” and a humorous treatise on driving (“Livin’ on the Highway”) that’s sort of Bo Diddley by way of Hoyt Axton. There was “Showdown,” a song that marries Neil Young-ish indigo-blues to an infectious pop chorus and Porter’s haunting little ode, “Abandon Borders.”

When Bordertown’s mix of acoustic and electric guitars and bass are tangled in a furious jam--as on their high-octane cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Sugar Magnolia”--the restless energy produced by the friction of the various components makes it hard to believe the band has no drummer (it performs with one about half the time). Beldock pushes the rhythmic wagon with some of the most cracklin’ cool country-jazz guitar solos and fills (he calls his style “acoustic thrash”) you’ll hear anywhere.

The group’s four-part vocals remind one of the evergreen pleasures derived from hearing a line of people singing strong harmonies. But it’s Porter’s voice that stands out. She’s a disciplined singer who produces a full-bodied tone, and her sensuous stage presence is a lovely adjunct to a versatility that enables her to switch gears from gypsy blues siren (on “Minnesota Lakes”) to earth-mama pop chanteuse. Beldock and the other guys are not oblivious to Porter’s contributions.

“One reason why our various influences are merging into something unique is because we’re writing more for Cici now,” he said. “It’s obvious to everybody, us included, that she’s got that star-charisma and ability. So we’re honing our sound in her direction.”

For all their apparent cohesiveness, Bordertown is vulnerable to all the usual trials, lulls, and individual gravities that dog the hard-striving band. In addition to “Angsters of Love” (the group’s recording released locally to good notice in 1990), Connor, Beldock and Porter have put out their own tapes. At intervals, Goodwin and Porter have gone off to play in other bands, and Bordertown has occasionally found itself temporarily dormant.

Beldock acknowledged that the individualism within the band is a lovely problem.

“This is an extremely democratic band, and that sometimes makes things difficult because everyone has to be consulted on everything,” he said. “But the fact that each person’s influence is evident in the music is also what makes us good.”

During one particularly low ebb in the band’s fortunes four years ago, Beldock, Connor, and a friend, Tim Cook, got booked into a bowling alley in Blythe.

“It was supposed to be a two-week gig,” Beldock said, laughing at the recollection. “We lasted two nights. Turns out they really wanted AM-radio country music, which we don’t play. Driving back home through the desert, Dan was inspired to write a great song, called ‘Don’t Know Why (I Do the Things I Do).’ So, it wasn’t a total disaster.”

Beyond its regular gigs around town, Bordertown is planning to tour the West and Southwest in the coming months and will play another craft festival in the spring. But the band members are most excited about releasing their first compact disc, currently being recorded at Studio West.

“We have seven or eight songs, and we’re shooting for 10 to 12,” Beldock said. “Hopefully, it’ll be out by Christmas. This definitely will be the best thing we’ve ever done.”

And the name of the upcoming opus?

“Well, there’s been some disagreement about that,” he said, laughing.

Bordertown will be at the B Street California Grill and Bar, 425 West B St., from 8 to midnight tonight.