COUNTRY MUSIC : Till Kahrs Is Playing for Keeps

Born in Germany. Raised in Orange County. Till K. Kahrs doesn’t have the likeliest of country-music pedigrees.

What’s more, he didn’t even discover he liked country music until he was nearing 30. But despite the late start and the not-quite-Nashville roots, the singer-songwriter keeps forging ahead, with tunes that range from sentimental tales of love gone wrong to more tongue-in-cheek looks at life.

He has built a local coffeehouse following and even landed a Top 10 country hit back in his native Germany. The biggest break in his stateside career comes Monday, when he and his band headline the Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana.

Kahrs was just a year old when his parents immigrated to the United States, and German was his first language; he didn’t learn English until he entered kindergarten. In elementary school, his lingering accent made him the butt of a few “Hogan’s Heroes” jokes; today, at 36, he retains the language but not the accent. After college, he sold wine and spirits for a while, but an affection for music finally caught up with him.

“I was really raised on rock ‘n’ roll, quite honestly,” Kahrs said in a phone interview, adding that he played in a couple of rock bands.

Friends told him, however, that his own songs had more of a country flavor, an idea Kahrs resisted at first.

“I thought, ‘Country? I hate country’ ” he recalled. “But then I started listening to it a little more and thought, ‘Wow, this is really good.’ ”

He made a demo to send to Nashville, selling himself as a songwriter, but ended up singing the songs himself when the singer he hired fell ill. Again, friends persuaded him to keep singing his own material, telling him his baritone was ideal for country music.

“I’m really self-taught,” Kahrs said. “I started sending out my tapes and doing showcases in L.A. and places like that.”

So far, Nashville hasn’t come knocking, but Kahrs is still working on that. He did get a call in 1992 from a German record label, and he went to the Netherlands to record a 16-song album, “Playing for Keeps.”

The title song was a hit on German country radio, which Kahrs said has a surprisingly large following. Since returning from Europe, the Irvine resident has been a regular on the Orange County coffeehouse circuit, building a local following that he hopes will pack the Crazy Horse (he is selling tickets to the show himself).

He has also invited some music industry executives, hoping the Crazy Horse gig (which came up suddenly when another headliner canceled) will serve as a showcase. He has started distributing the German album himself to local record shops, and “Playing for Keeps” has seen some airplay on country station KIK-FM, but his goal is still to land a major record deal.

In the meantime, he continues to work the European connection. He goes back to record his follow-up album in June and will also tour the continent, expecting to be gone at least three months.

Thus, the Crazy Horse show “is like my last big home stand, for the fans,” Kahrs said.

The German audience for country music is fairly big and getting bigger all the time, he said, and much of that growth is due to a fascination with the Old West. He figures his ability to converse with fans in German will give him an edge over some bigger American stars, who are starting to tour Europe more frequently.

Landing the German record deal “was really my first big break,” Kahrs said.

“The next step for me is to get a spot on German television.”

Who: The Till Kahrs Band in concert.

When: Monday, May 2, 8:30 p.m.

Where: Crazy Horse Steak House, 1580 Brookhollow, Santa Ana.

Whereabouts: Take the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway to the Dyer Road exit. From the north, go right on Grand Avenue, then take the first right, Brookhollow Drive; from the south, go left under the overpass, right on Grand and right on Brookhollow. The club is on the right.

Wherewithal: $10.

Where to call: (714) 551-2393.