Up The Coast : MUSIC DAVE SHARP : Making a Point : The pushy and preachy folk singer does ‘real music about real situations.’

If more Americans were like British subject Dave Sharp, there’d be a lot less to snivel about. Sharp is a concerned citizen who cares about Important Stuff like the environment, the less fortunate and helping others. He and Eddie Money will be doing an all-acoustic show at the Anaconda Theater in Isla Vista tonight.

Pushy and preachy, yet as relaxed as a dolphin in Malibu, Sharp is on a mission. He wants people to wise up. Comic-book writer Steve Gerber once noted that “the world can be a marvelous place if you ignore everything that’s going on around you.”

Well, things may not be marvelous, but they can sound marvelous when Sharp starts rocking, despite the fact that he’s basically just a folk singer and his acoustic guitar.

Sharp used to be in the Alarm; now he’s merely alarmed. Conservative political times seem to stimulate a creative counterculture. Sharp’s probably ready. He released an angry-young-folk-singer album, “Hard Travellin’ ” last summer. Now he’s hanging out in San Diego, catching some rays and writing a bunch of new songs. Oh, and talking on the phone. . . .

So what have you been up to lately?

I’m waiting to go on tour full-steam at the end of March. I just finished touring the U. K. for 3 1/2 months. I took along sort of a medicine show with me. I had protest singers, gospel singers. And we had an open-mike format as well. Last year I hung out in New York City, but now I’m in San Diego with time on my hands. I’ve been writing a lot of new songs. Since I got here, I’ve gotten involved in the local music scene. Like New York, there’s a healthy, burgeoning folk scene. There’s a new breed of singers that are concerned about the state of the country, the economy and the environment. These singers are aware enough to not be beguiled by the seductions of the rock ‘n’ roll industry.

But why San Diego?

The weather’s a lot nicer here for one thing. Also, I’m pretty much of a reaction person. I react against apathy. So here I am in conservative San Diego writing a lot. And back in the ‘30s, Woody Guthrie actually spent a lot of time here and in Tijuana.

OK, but why not L. A.?

I didn’t want to be in the focal point of the music industry. I didn’t want to attract a lot of attention.

Is it the end for the Alarm?

The Alarm is still together. We had all felt two years ago that it was time to take a break from constant touring. After 10 years, we got sucked into the corporate way of doing things. We started off with a very clear set of ideals and a lot of youthful energy, but after 10 years, we seemed to be chasing the hit. So it was time to sidestep the industry and get a fresh perspective. I wouldn’t believe that the Alarm is over. I know that we will be back in the studio again.

How did you get started in all this?

I guess I just picked up a guitar and started wailing. I had a band together when I was 8. I gradually began to branch out--when I was 15, I was playing in the back rooms of pubs. It’s different now. I tend to see the music industry as the leech on the back of every musician in the world. With the recession, the industry is very redundant. There’s little or no creativity in the industry, and radio is running scared right now. You can’t play bubble-gum sissy music and still be true to yourself. More and more people every day are making music that’s relevant and will do some people some good.

Hey, you’re on a roll, man. So what’s the best and worst thing about your job?

The best thing is you get to tell about life the way it is. The worst thing is some people don’t like to listen to the way it is. They’d rather hear about the way it should be.

Can music change the world?

I don’t think anything can change the world except people themselves who can open their eyes to the possibilities of change.

Why is folk music often so serious?

It doesn’t have to be. I just talk about what I need to talk about. It can be happy, sad, up or down, but I just try to make people feel good. Just because a guy carries an acoustic guitar, it automatically gets categorized as folk music. It’s real music about real situations.

What was your strangest gig?

I guess that would have to be at Earth Day a few years ago in Central Park in New York. We were expecting 10,000 people and three-quarters of a million showed up. I nearly died on the spot. I’ve never seen that many people. There were people as far as the eye could see. I was very nervous, but I just got up there and wailed.

So what’s next?

I’m going to do a few more solo shows on the coast, then take my medicine show back on the road, as I said, in March. I’m writing a lot of songs, and another solo album is a distinct possibility.

* WHERE AND WHEN

Dave Sharp and Eddie Money do the acoustic thing at the Anaconda Theater in Isla Vista at 8 tonight. The venue is at 935 Embarcadero del Norte. Sharp used to be in the Alarm, Money didn’t. Money used to be a cop, Sharp didn’t. For information, call 965-3112.