Time for Festive Music : Zaca Creek will headline at Conejo Valley Days. The Santa Barbara-area band has made a name for itself with its brand of country-rock.

It’s Conejo Valley Days time again, Wednesday through May 1. This year’s theme is “Boots, Buckles and Bandannas.” So don’t be surprised if folks start looking like extras from Central Casting. After all, one of the week’s highlights is the annual Women’s Western Wear Contest. But it’s limited to the first 50 entrants who register--so get a move on.

Other special events include a country-Western dance sponsored by the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, junior and regular rodeos, a Western pit barbecue and plenty of country music for dancing and listening pleasure.

Headlining the main stage entertainment will be Zaca Creek and two hot local bands, the Rhythm Rangers and Cactus County.

Zaca Creek is one of few groups from the Santa Barbara area to have made it to the big time. The others have all been rock bands. But Zaca Creek is probably the only Santa Barbara-area country band to hit the national charts.

The four Foss brothers make up the band. They have been playing country-rock together since the mid-’60s when Scot Foss, their lead guitarist, was about 8.

“We were born in Santa Barbara and grew up in Santa Ynez,” he said during our recent phone visit. “My grandfather was one of the very first guys to surf the Rincon. Dad learned from him. And it’s gone right down through the family.”

But the interest in surfing didn’t extend to surf music.

“But we’ve always played country-rock and use lots of vocal harmonies,” Foss said. “Our earlier influences included artist/writers James Taylor, John Cougar Mellencamp and Merle Haggard. And now our music is being accepted by the country music radio formats.”

Following the 1990 release of their first album, “Zaca Creek” on the CBS label, the band’s second CD, “Broken Heartland,” debuted on Giant records. It produced three singles that charted Top 50 nationally, including two of their original tunes, “Fly Me South,” an up-tempo country-blues song and “Two Wheel Pony,” a fast two-step. You can still catch music videos of these two songs on Country Music Television and local cable outlets. Meanwhile, the guys are writing material for their third album and gearing up for tour dates.

But you can catch their act at Fan Fest, where they will perform and have a Zaca Creek booth all four days.

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Bubba can Scoot, Bubba can Slide, Bubba can Two-Step and Bubba can Glide. Everybody stand back and give me some room. ‘Cuz if Bubba can dance, I can too. -- From Shenandoah’s hit song “Bubba Can Dance.”

Well, it looks like dance instructor Rick Henderson and 3,000 of his closest friends are taking the words to Shenandoah’s new song seriously. At 3:30 p.m. Sunday you’ll find them at the California Beach Party in Ventura where they hope to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most people line dancing in one location at the same time. Just look along the beachfront bike path across the street from the Ventura County Fairgrounds near the Classic Car Show. Henderson will be there from 2 to 5 p.m. to teach newcomers some basic steps so all can participate.

Thunder Country radio on-air personalities Bob Allen and Billy Gibson will be pushin’ their tushes with the folks. And between 12:30 and 4:30 p.m. those hoppin’, harmony-singing guys of Platte River Crossing will crank out the tunes.

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The line dancers may not make the 6 o’clock news for breaking any records, but over the last few months Ventura County has been well-represented on the glitz map by folks from the local country scene.

Gerry Handley’s brush with stardom convinced him to finally join the Ventura County chapter of the musician’s union. Viewers of the CBS television show, “Hearts Afire,” starring John Ritter (son of country legend, Tex Ritter), might have seen Handley and his band featured as--what else?--the country band playing behind chicken wire in a honky tonk scene. But you can catch them most weekends at Rube’s Valley BBQ in Simi Valley.

Patrons of the Borderline in Thousands Oaks may have recognized dance instructors Jamie and Gail Arias, who were featured in a nationally televised jewelry commercial for Sears. And Thousand Oaks resident, Miss Ila, who teaches at Santa Barbara’s Red Dog Saloon, often recruits local talent at the Borderline to appear with her in satellite country dance television shows.

Moorpark-based dance instructors Ed Failing and Sally Bourgerie have two nationally hot-selling videos featuring the popular band, Larry Dean & the Shooters, who often perform at Cousin’s in Simi Valley. Last month Ed & Sally (as they like to be known professionally) began teaching from 7 to 8 p.m. every Thursday at The Country Club in Reseda. The place claims to be the Valley’s largest country dance club.

The Ban-Dar’s co-owner, Jonie Mosby Mitchell, scored a double-header in January. The 54-year-old former country singer and her toddler son, Morgan, were featured in a People magazine article and a segment of NBC television’s “Dateline,” about older women giving birth with the aid of in vitro fertilization.

And most recently, television’s “Love Connection” returned to the Crazy Bull in Camarillo to recruit more participants for the matchmaking show.

Our cow-country folks must be doing something right to snag their 15 minutes in the spotlight.