Tender Fender

Freddy Fender is a happy guy. Over the course of a recent conversation, he joked about everything, even his years in prison. He giggled; he broke into song. That goofy smile one sees when he is singing apparently is no show-biz shtick. It’s there, it seems, because he can’t help it.

A self-effacing charm infuses all his work. Even when he is singing a tear-jerker and his voice seems to be choking back sobs, there’s a wink and a smile behind the melodrama that let’s you know:

“Hey, it’s OK. It’s just me, just Freddy.”

Born Baldemar G. Huerta in the south Texas town of San Benito some 59 years ago, Fender--who sings at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana tonight--left home at 16 to join the Marines. Upon his release, he returned to San Benito and started cranking out Spanish-language versions of contemporary pop and rock ‘n’ roll hits for Falcon Records and became a regional sensation.

In 1959 he was signed to the larger Imperial Records. That’s when he became Freddy Fender. With three modest hits in 1960 (“Holy One,” “Crazy Baby Crazy” and the original version of “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”), he seemed well on his way to national success.

On May 13, 1960, he was arrested in Baton Rouge, La., for possession of two joints and was sentenced to three years in Louisiana’s infamous Angola State Penitentiary. For many, such a fall might have meant the end of a career, but Fender says he barely let it slow him down.

“It really didn’t bother me too much,” he said, on the phone from his home in Corpus Christi. “I don’t think I really grasped it. I was on too much of an up. I should have sunk, but I kept floating. I’m still floating to this day!”

Out of jail in ‘63, he started picking up the pieces. There was extended dues-paying and a dry spell that lasted more than a decade, but he hung in there.

“I’m an expert on starting again,” he said. “Even if I’m not down, I can hype myself into feeling like I’m starting again.”

His perseverance hit pay dirt in 1975 when his breakthrough hit, “Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” made it to No. 1. Also that year, “Secret Love” charted at No. 20, and a remake of “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” reached No. 8, sealing Fender’s status as a pop and country star. He was all over television in the mid-’70s, appearing regularly on “Midnight Special,” “In Concert” and “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.”

Fender’s delicate vocal style is instantly recognizable--a soulful, high-end-of-tenor sound particularly effective on such ballads as “Teardrop,” “Pledging My Love” and “Since I Met You, Baby.” At times he seems to be singing with a lump in his throat, and he enunciates so clearly--pausing on syllables--that he seems to be fighting back tears.

“I think my style is [a result of] my efforts at learning American English,” he said. “English is my second language, and I made a super effort to pronounce my words, and that, along with the meaning and melody of a song, gave me my style.”

An avid devotee of pop radio throughout his life, he says, he picked up his licks from a variety of sources.

“I took a little bit from everyone that I heard. I listened to a lot of artists out of Mexico and a lot of Americans. Gene Vincent was a very big influence. Hank Williams, Ray Charles. I like Jimmy Reed a lot, and I admire Bob Dylan and Bobby Darin. I always admired Little Richard too, but I never could sing like him. Another guy that couldn’t sing like him is Pat Boone, but that never stopped him from trying!

“A lot of people want to associate me with Aaron Neville, which is a great honor, but I came out a little bit before he did. Everyone from the old school still associates him with ‘Tell It Like It Is,’ which I still use as the second song in my set after all these years. Just for the hell of it, I’d like for him to be one side of the stage and me on the other sometime, singing that song, and see what comes out.”

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Fender was a contemporary of the pioneering Latino rock singer Ritchie Valens, but their paths never crossed.

“He was more of a California thing. He really didn’t have much impact in Texas. And to tell you the truth, the fact that he was Hispanic didn’t really come out at the time. He was light-complected, and he looked like a boxer, not a pretty boy like in the movie. But he had that nice, high voice.”

Fender launched into Valens’ “Donna.” “I think I have a higher voice than he did, and I’m uglier, too! My wife and I have been married for 40 years because she feels sorry me, I’m so ugly!”

Since 1989, Fender has been a member of the Texas Tornadoes, along with Doug Sahm, Augie Meyer and Flaco Jimenez. But he said that, although he enjoys his work with the Tex-Mex super-group, his solo career remains his priority.

“The Tornadoes is actually more fun, but it’s to my career advantage to promote Freddy Fender. It all works out pretty smoothly. We look at each others’ itineraries, and then we get together for bookings.”

Fender’s own bookings keep him on the road from April through December, and he feels no desire to slow as he approaches senior citizenship.

“I fly around so much, Southwest Airlines thinks I’m part of the crew,” he said with a laugh. “I want to work forever. I want to work into my 90s if I’m healthy enough to do it.”

* Freddy Fender, the Millertime Blues Band and Local Heroes play tonight at the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. 8 p.m. $19.50-$21.50. (714) 957-0600.