Solo Test Flight for ‘Big Sandy’

Robert “Big Sandy” Williams and his band, the Fly-Rite Boys, are winging it separately with two upcoming side-project CDs that Williams says are designed to explore new styles and buy time while the full ensemble comes up with material for its next album and ponders a record deal.

“Big Sandy Presents His Fly-Rite Boys,” released this week, features the five instrumental aces who usually back the creamy-voiced Williams. Meanwhile, Williams has finished his first solo album, “Dedicated to You,” a collection of doo-wop and R&B; nuggets.

Both are on Hightone Records, the Oakland-based roots-music label that has issued three fine albums by Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys since 1984.

Williams said last year’s release, “Feelin’ Kind of Lucky,” was the final one in the Anaheim band’s contract with Hightone, but the label asked him if he would do a solo record as a one-shot deal.

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Because his work with the Fly-Rite Boys has focused on the rockabilly, country music and western swing he learned from his father’s record collection while growing up, Williams decided to pay tribute to the input he got from his mother, a devotee of vintage doo-wop and R&B.;

Williams’ backup includes two young veterans of the Southern California roots-music scene: bassist Russell Scott, who fronts Russell Scott & His Red Hots, and Adrian Demain, guitarist in Lee Rocker’s band. There are also some veterans on the session, including piano player Dewey Terry of the acclaimed ‘50s R&B; duo Don & Dewey.

Williams said Hightone suggested the separate Fly-Rite Boys album to give the other band members “an outlet [while] they were sitting around waiting for me to finish my project.”

Williams said he took pains to assure his regular bandmates--bassist Wally Hersom, drummer Bobby Trimble, steel guitarist Lee Jeffriess, guitarist Ashley Kingman and pianist Carl “Sonny” Leyland--that he wasn’t jilting them for a solo career.

“They were a little leery that this [would] lead me in a different direction and leave them behind,” Williams said. “I made sure we all talked about it and that it was understood that these are little side projects. The Fly-Rite Boys is what I put my heart into.”

With swing music a hot item, Williams thinks the pendulum has swung in a favorable direction for Big Sandy. Although not a horn-driven jump band such as Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Royal Crown Revue or Cherry Poppin’ Daddies--all brassy, retro acts with major label deals--Williams says his band, which serves similar high spirits with different instrumentation, “has been picking up on some of the swing action” while maintaining its rockabilly and country fan base.

The timing could mean a major label deal for Big Sandy and his Fly-Rite Boys, Williams said: Hightone has proposed a joint release with Sire Records, but the band is pausing to consider what to do.