The Sound of Broken Dreams

One could guess that singer-songwriter Fred Eaglesmith hails from the romantic expanse of Texas, for his songs are laced with images of big skies, dusty roads and desperate if well-meaning characters. He’s also currently touring with Texan Robert Earl Keen, with a local stopover Tuesday night at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

Except Eaglesmith hails from the desolate fields of Lincoln County in southern Ontario, Canada. He is one of nine children reared in a strict, religious family that lost its farm when Eaglesmith was 15. Today, he lives on the north shore of Lake Erie, in the rural town of Brantford, just miles from the old farm.

Eaglesmith said people often link him with Lone Star luminaries like Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Lyle Lovett and Lucinda Williams. He understands, even welcomes, the connection.

“I didn’t really see it until about 2 1/2 years ago,” he said in a recent telephone interview from his Brantford home. “I was raised in this part of Ontario that looks a lot like Texas. . . . It was dry and windy, with long, flat roads. Plus, I listened to Texas guys like [progressive country singer] Mickey Newbury.

“But, when I think of the settings for some of my songs, it’s actually parts of Kentucky I’ve driven through that come to mind. Ya know, the hot nights and gas stations on the edge of town. . . . That’s exactly how it is where I live.”

The grainy-voiced Eaglesmith, 34, is one of those hard-to-classify musicians who roam from sparse country and folk styles to melodic, harder strains of roots, pop and rock. Much like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits, Eaglesmith is a vivid storyteller, focusing on the workaday world of decent folks whose humanity--their optimism, flaws and frailties--makes us care about their plight.

Although he has put out eight albums over 17 years, the Canadian troubadour remains virtually unknown south of the border. He has recorded mostly for a variety of independent labels, but his latest LP--last year’s “Lipstick Lies & Gasoline”--is his first for New York-based Razor & Tie, a widely distributed label whose roster includes Graham Parker, Dar Williams and Marshall Crenshaw.

Much of “Lipstick Lies & Gasoline” thematically covers familiar Eaglesmith fare: guns, drinking, truckers, busted dreams and broken hearts. One big change, however, is a shift from characters grounded in the past to those surviving, if barely, in the present. The eerie “Seven Shells” was inspired by a drunken passenger sitting next to Eaglesmith on a flight to Las Vegas. The man repeatedly mumbled: “I’ve got seven shells in my gun, and I’m going to win big time.”

Eaglesmith says he thinks people are intrigued by such contemporary characters because they are “relevant.”

“I used to write a lot about that old guy living down the lane who was crazy, but that no longer holds much interest to me,” said Eaglesmith, who cites singer-songwriter John Prine as his biggest influence.

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Now he looks to tell the stories of folks he refers to as “edge-of-towners.”

“Even if you drive an hour or two outside of L.A., or any big city, you’re gonna find these people,” he said. “That’s where I live right now, and that’s where I try to stay when I’m on the road . . . on the outskirts.”

“Those people are in-the-moment, and they have this vibe about what’s going on. I mean, when you’re in the city, you’re kinda caught up in the mood of that city. And when you’re in the country, you get sort of this rural thing happening. But when you’re in the middle, where are you? You’re in motel alley, man. . . . It’s where people aren’t very attached to their lifestyle, so it gives them this overview. . . . Those people are the ones with this great big commentary about real people living complex, often fascinating lives.”

On sharing the stage each night with the like-minded Keen--whose explosive song titles include “Blow You Away,” “Sonora’s Death Row” and “When Kindness Fails”--Eaglesmith said he’s enjoying the camaraderie and atmosphere surrounding each night’s performance.

“Robert and I do put on an in-your-face show,” he said, chuckling. “In my mind, it’s an event. Each night, there are pickup trucks in the parking lot, guys drinking beer and fighting with their girlfriends. And then there’ll be senior citizens dancing and people who brought their 10-year-old kid.

“It’s definitely not a young, hipster crowd. Hell, we’re not hip. But it feels like you’re a part of something . . . although I’m not really sure what. Kind of like that feeling that you belong, ya know what I mean?”

Eaglesmith must feel like an outsider, though, working as a staff writer for Bluewater Music, a publishing company based in Nashville, the capital of mainstream country music where pop-oriented hits dominate the from-the-heart song variety of the sort Eaglesmith turns out.

“Yeah, I’m not part of that hit-making machinery over there, but I do know what the problem is,” he said. “Nondairy creamer.

“Every publishing house is full of the stuff. No one uses milk in Nashville. . . . You know what that stuff does to you? It’s just drywall paste that builds up big nodes on each [side of the] brain. So when the message tries to go between the terminals, there’s this awful buildup.”

When Eaglesmith shares his own edge-of-town philosophy with other Nashville songwriters about “why country music is in the state it is . . . they just look at me like I’m nuts.”

Go figure.

* Robert Earl Keen, Fred Eaglesmith and Mark Wood play Tuesday at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. 8 p.m. $15-$17. (949) 496-8930.