MUSIC REVIEW : Up-Close, Cozy With Jennings : Country: Laid-back rebel blended old and new material during an an engaging performance in a small club.

In recent years, Waylon Jennings has performed for thousands of local fans at the Lakeside Rodeo Arena and at the Del Mar Fair, to name two memorable, large-scale shows. But, on Sunday night, the man credited with being an architect of the “outlaw country” sound returned to his more natural habitat, the country-Western club--in this case Leo’s Little Bit O’ Country in San Marcos--where he could turn down the amplifiers and visit with the audience up close and personal.

Jennings blended new and old material in an hourlong set that underscored his image as a straight-speaking but somewhat laid-back rebel. His folksy manner would prove to be a salve for the capacity crowd of just under 400, which had stood outside in the sun while Jennings’ band did a belated, late-afternoon sound check before the first of two shows.

After a strong set by house band Char Carroll and the Durango Band, Jennings took the stage to a hearty ovation and got right to work with a new song--the caffeine-paced “Smokey on Your Front Door,” from his upcoming album, “Too Dumb for New York City, Too Ugly for L.A.”

One immediately noticed that this was a younger band than those Jennings has brought to town in the past. Gone are near-legendary pedal-steel guitarist Ralph Mooney and keyboardist Floyd Domino, replaced by studio cats Robbie Turner and Barry Walsh, respectively. Both are beyond competent, and the latter, especially, exploited his electronic keyboard’s capacities to ingenious effect. Walsh employed a button-accordion sound to lend a Tex-Mex flavor to the the Jennings standard, “Rainy Day Woman,” and his approximation of a tack piano gave “Trouble Man” an invigorating honky-tonk lift.

Still, one got the impression that this band is incapable of the instrumental fireworks of its recent predecessor. At least one fan felt that fact warranted addressing. “Where’s Ralph Mooney?” he shouted after Jennings’ vigorous run-through of his 1974 single, “This Time.”

“Ol’ Ralph’s retired down in Texas,” Jennings replied politely. “He’s probably drunk somewhere this afternoon.”

If anything, the absence of such incendiary sidemen provided a more accommodating context for Jennings’ own skills. He’s no slouch as a rhythm guitarist, and his trademark gritty, low-note picking and chording were the band’s knuckles as it punched through such Jennings classics as “Good Hearted Woman” and “Mommas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.”

Jennings’ baritone was strong and assured, and he seemed in excellent humor, needling his band, the audience, and his wife, singer Jessi Colter, who came out to perform a solo ballad (“I’m Not Lisa”) on baby grand piano and a duet (“Suspicious Minds”) with her husband.

“We’ve been married 22 years,” Jennings said to the audience when the youthful, very attractive Colter joined him onstage. “Now you tell me, which of us has this marriage been the hardest on?”

In this era of political outsiders, Jennings at one point whimsically tested his own electability with another new song, “Just Talkin’ ” (which will be released as a single later this month). Jennings interrupted the lyrics (which remark on “a lot of politicians on Capitol Hill, prospering while the country’s standing still”) to wonder aloud if he should run for office, thus eliciting a roar from the crowd.

With the audience seemingly hanging on every note, the concert accelerated to a close with “Wrong,” the humorous tune about dashed romantic expectations from the 1990 album “The Eagle” and a Waylon-ized version of Rodney Crowell’s hard- rockin’ “I Ain’t Living Long Like This.” The encore, “I’ve Always Been Crazy,” turned into an impromptu sing-along, indicating that, if this wasn’t necessarily the best Jennings performance in these parts, it easily was one of the most engaging.