MUSIC ANSON FUNDERBURGH : Texas Rockets : The hard-touring guitar player and his blues ensemble will be playing at Felix’s on Tuesday.

Anson Funderburgh talks a lot more slowly than he plays. He’s got the classic Texas drawl where it takes him an hour and a half to say “yuuuuuuuuuuuuuup.”

He’s this week’s Texas guitar hero on the move. The band used to do nearly 300 gigs per year, but now it’s down to a mere 260 nights, which is still a mighty serious road trip.

Back in the days when brevity was king, Funderburgh’s band was called Anson & the Rockets. Then, like John Cougar who could finally afford to become John Cougar Mellencamp, Anson became Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets.

Now he’s chucked the ampersand and added killer soul crooner/harp player Sam Myers to become Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets featuring Sam Myers. If Funderburgh were a baseball player, his handle wouldn’t fit on the Hulk’s back.

Whatever one calls them, they’re another rockin’ blues band coming to the 805 area code. The band played at the Ojai Bowlful of Blues a few years ago. They were supposed to play at Blue Monday in Ventura just three days ago, but their truck broke down in Gallup, N.M. Now they’re doing the Blue Tues. Daze thing at Felix’s Cantina in Santa Barbara.

Funderburgh is touring to showcase his latest release, “Tell Me What I Want to Hear.” That makes six albums on the same label, Black Top Records out of New Orleans. “Talk to You by Hand” was the label’s first release, in 1981.

“I just like independent labels,” Funderburgh said in a recent phone interview from somewhere in the 214 area code. “There’s a lot to be said for working with someone who gives you so much control over your artistic efforts. They have a job to produce a product that sells, and our feelings are pretty mutual.”

Funderburgh grew up listening to the blues, then playing the blues. So parents, be careful with the sort of records you play for your kids. If you’re inundating their small brains with Death, Hole, the Cramps, Suffocation, Mariah Carey, Kenny G--well, here comes another generation full of robots without a clue. Of course, they’ll be rich.

“Blues is always what appealed to me,” Funderburgh said. “I got my first guitar when I was 15, and also a bunch of 45s--”Honky Tonk’ by Bill Doggett and stuff by Albert Collins, Jimmy Reed--and I thought ‘Man, this is really the stuff.’

“I’ve been playing in bars since I was a teen-ager. In the late ‘60s, in Texas, you had to play R&B; because there was this dance called The Push. It had to have a 4-4 beat and you had to play ‘Kansas City,’ ‘Linda Lou,’ and ‘Honky Tonk.’ This was right up my alley because I loved that stuff anyway. Besides the blues, I grew up listening to a lot of country and Western. I love George Jones and Buck Owens.”

Funderburgh plugged away with the Rockets for several years, then in 1986 his career took off when veteran bluesman Sam Myers joined the band. Myers, who released his first record in 1957 (when Funderburgh was 3), gave the band instant credibility on the blues circuit. Even better, Myers is a smooth vocalist and a killer harmonica player.

Along with Funderburgh’s economical guitar solos and Myers’ cool vocals and harp work, Matt McCabe is a talented piano player.

“We all play the parts that need to be played and there are no showboats in this band--hear what I’m saying?” Funderburgh said. “I think people misunderstand the simplicity of it all--the economics of this music. People that watch MTV think that if you’re not jumping around, playing a thousand notes a minute and the drummer hitting every drum in sight, that you’re not doing much.

So it’s pretty much blues skies and green lights these days since blues certainly hasn’t gone away but seems to be getting more popular every day. The band will appear in an upcoming Kevin Costner film, “China Moon,” and was just resigned with the Miller Genuine Draft blues people--a lucrative sponsorship deal.

“I feel so lucky to have had so much success,” Funderburgh said. “There are so many other musicians out there who have worked just as hard as I have and play just as well, if not better. I’m lucky to be able to make a decent living doing something that I love--playing danceable, fun music.

And, believe it or not, Funderburgh is one of the few blues guys who doesn’t wear sunglasses all the time. Gee, I always thought that was required of blues musicians.

“I never got into wearing sunglasses at night,” Funderburgh said. “They only do that California. It’s not sunny enough in Texas.”

Yup.

* WHERE AND WHEN

Anson & the Rockets at Felix’s Cantina, 525 State St., Santa Barbara, Tuesday at 8 p.m., 8 bucks. For more information, call 963-8664.