A Red Hots Brand of Rockabilly

Southern California has been a breeding ground for rockabilly bands almost from the music’s inception. Angelenos Eddie Cochran and Ricky Nelson laid down some of the genre’s finest tracks in the late ‘50s, even if their brand of L.A. ‘billy was slicker and poppier than the work of rural pioneers such as Elvis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Burnette.

When the music enjoyed a revival in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Southern California was at the forefront of the movement with bands that included the Blasters, Jimmy & the Mustangs, the Paladins, the Rockin’ Rebels and James Intveld and the Rockin’ Shadows.

Today the tradition continues with such groups as Big Sandy and his Fly-Rite Boys, the Dave & Deke Combo, the Hooligans, the Sun Demons, Hot Rod Lincoln and--among the finest--Russell Scott and His Red Hots, who perform every Thursday through January at Linda’s Doll Hut in Anaheim.

Formed in 1991 and currently made up of bassist-vocalist Scott, guitarist Gene E. Jaramillo and drummer Philippe Aubuchon, this is a group that has set itself apart from the twang-and-hiccup crowd by its refusal to be pigeonholed. Russell Scott and His Red Hots have become mainstays of the scene even as they seemingly thumb their collective nose at it.

Visually, the Red Hots are a far cry from the standard pompadoured and black leather-clad ‘billy fan. Scott is balding, frequently bearded and favors denim overalls to drape his ample frame; Jaramillo and Aubuchon both sport shoulder-length hair (gasp!).

Then there’s the material. Scott writes the bulk of the group’s catalog, and while the slapping upright bass and echo-laden guitar fit the rockabilly formula, Scott’s compositions also flash an intimate knowledge of pop, swing and blues.

Even more against the grain is the Red Hots’ choice of cover material, which has included songs by Neil Diamond, Bob Marley, Echo and the Bunnymen, Harry Belafonte and the Beatles.

Perhaps most important, Scott’s smooth, high-end-of-tenor vocals don’t adhere to the hunka-hunka rockabilly method. His voice is a pretty and versatile instrument, which shows the influence of such heroes as Belafonte and Clyde McPhatter as much as it does Gene Vincent or Hank Williams.

“I don’t know how we get away with it really,” Scott said with a chuckle in a recent phone interview from his Simi Valley home.

“We’ve never really held to . . . what a friend of mine once called the ‘rockabilly union rules.’ We don’t do it with our music, and we don’t do it with the way we look. We just kind of call ourselves a rock ‘n’ roll band, but we get classified as a rockabilly band because that’s the scene that lends itself to us most readily. It’s a pretty crazy thing, to see a rockabilly guy screaming for us to play [Neil Diamond’s] ‘Sweet Caroline’! “

Willingness to step out of the genre’s parameters is one of the main facets of the Red Hots’ appeal, and Scott, 29, knows it.

“If you look at the word ‘rockabilly,’ you’ve got rock ‘n’ roll and you’ve got hillbilly,” he said. “Now there’s four different influences to where [those forms of music] came from right there. And so when people get into rockabilly, if they dig where it came from, they’ll also become fans of blues and swing and hillbilly and a lot of other stuff.

“It seems to me that it’s mostly the younger kids who go, ‘I belong to this tribe and everyone with long hair or a Mohawk or anything different sucks.’ As people grow up, they realize that rockabilly didn’t just appear one day; it’s a product of other influences that came before it. When people are open-minded, it’s a good thing.”

What the Red Hots have in common with more traditional ‘billy bands is the tiny but loyal worldwide scene that sustains them. Without so much as an independent record to maintain momentum, the Red Hots have built a strong West Coast fan base and have toured overseas.

It was on a European tour this year that the band caught the attention of Bear Family Records, a German label noted for its exhaustive and scholarly re-releases of ‘50s classics, which is starting to sign rockabilly groups. The group makes its recording debut on an eight-song, 10-inch LP to be released by Bear Family early in 1997.

“The main reason we even wanted to get a record out was just so we could go back to Europe,” Scott said. “It’s really cool over there; it’s really fun. We were playing at a ski resort in the Swiss Alps, and I was thinking, ‘Man, I’m a long, long way from home right now, and all I had to do to get here was to sing and play the bass.’ ”

* Russell Scott and His Red Hots play Thursdays through January at Linda’s Doll Hut, 107 S. Adams St., Anaheim. 9 p.m. $5 cover. (714) 533-1286.