Quality Music, Celebs Have Him Feeling Comfy at Cozy’s

I stopped by Cozy’s Bar & Grill in Sherman Oaks last Saturday night. It’s a good-looking room, with high ceilings, a modern decor, a great sound system and separate rooms for dining and pool tables.

Owner Steve Rakoczy seems like a kid with a new toy--personally working the sound board and helping out behind the bar and around the place.

And when I say kid, I mean kid. Rakoczy, 29, would have a hard time getting in the place if he wasn’t the owner. This guy looks so young, even I wanted to card him.

But Rakoczy seems intent on bringing quality music into his club. The Denny Freeman Band plays Thursdays, singer B. J. Sharp holds down Fridays, while Saturdays and Wednesdays are up for grabs. On Saturday, Louisiana Guitar Red and Gashouse Dave blew the full room away.

Former KCBS news anchor Bree Walker was in the audience and actor Harry Dean Stanton got up to sing and blow harp on a couple of Chuck Berry tunes--”Promised Land” and “You Never Can Tell.”

With all these celebrities, for a second I thought I was in another area code. Stanton, who’s been in more films than could possibly be listed here, did more than a respectable job, but Dave and Red were the stars of this show.

Dave gets such a fat sound out of his guitar that it’s easy to forget that most of the time he’s playing with only a bass player and a drummer.

Red, the show-biz vet that he is, jumped off the stage and, with the help of his cordless guitar, wandered toward the back of the club, then headed out the front door, greeting passersby on the street. He never missed a beat.

The audience ate it up.

All the way from Texas, Teddy Morgan & the Sevilles are due to arrive at Cozy’s this weekend. Their debut album, “Ridin’ in Style,” was released by Antone’s Records of Austin in 1994. Morgan, a Minnesota native, previously worked with James Harmon and other blues outfits, but this trio is his own.

Why do most Westsiders come only to Valley places that are on Ventura Boulevard? Because the lack of parking places reminds them of home.

Parking, the curse of many Ventura Boulevard places, is not a problem here--there’s a supermarket lot across the street.

Teddy Morgan & the Sevilles play Saturday night at Cozy’s Bar & Grill, 14058 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. $5 cover. Call (818) 986-6000.

*

On Vacation: Promoter Yowzah has called it quits for the summer, so Club Dump at the Blue Saloon on Saturday nights is on hiatus. Now the North Hollywood site is offering Club Yoda, run by Shane Stewart of the band Life on Mars, on Wednesday nights. The name, Club Yoda, really fits since the place sometimes resembles the bar scene in the original “Star Wars” movie.

It’s a little place with a few pool tables that are always in use. To loosely paraphrase Garrison Keillor’s description of Lake Wobegone--The Blue Saloon, where the drinks are strong, the women above average, and some of the men are really ugly. No pretty boys here.

I walked through the door, looked around and suddenly felt like Mel Gibson.

The two bands I heard that night were Dear Enemy and Life on Mars, Stewart’s band. Both play melodic alternative rock with some decidedly hard edges. And both were received warmly by the crowd.

Life on Mars, Monkeybread and Uncle Dale play Club Yoda on Wednesday night at the Blue Saloon, 4657 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. $3 cover. Call (818) 766-4644.

*

Royal Treatment: The long-awaited first CD by King Cotton is now available.

The former lead singer of the Bonedaddys loves four-part vocal harmonies, and the new album, “El Royale Flush En El Blue Cafe,” is a collection of 18 tunes, the type that the King and his court do best: obscure R & B classics.

King Cotton holds court at B. B. King’s on Universal CityWalk every Sunday ($6 cover). Also at B. B. King’s, the Chicago blues band Howard & the White Boys play tonight ($6 cover). And Coco Montoya with Jake Andrews play Friday and Saturday ($12 at the door). Call (818) 622-5464.