He’s Still a Country Boy at Heart

Gary Allan and his buddies spent a lot of time listening to punk music and alternative rock while growing up here in Orange County. But the graduate of Whittier’s Lacerna High School knew he was onto something different. The music closest to his heart wasn’t that of Mike Ness or John Doe, but of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens.

“My friends were were more into rockabilly, punk and alternative, and we saw X, Social Distortion, Black Flag and T.S.O.L. together,” Allan recalled during a recent cell-phone interview from somewhere on the road between Chico and Orange County.

“But they knew . . . [that] if you rode in my truck, you’d hear Merle and Buck . . . maybe some George Jones or Randy Travis,” he said. “I didn’t take much heat because I was that kid in school that could play the guitar . . . so there was always that kind of cool factor to consider.”

While living in La Mirada, Allan got hooked on classic country music in the sixth grade when his parents took him to see an Ernest Tubb concert. Allan’s father played guitar in a local country band and also played an influential role in his love of country. Allan began playing the acoustic guitar when he was 10, started singing at 12 and performing in local clubs by 13.

After years of honing his chops on the local bar circuit--including a three-year stint as the house band at the Lion D’or in Downey--Allan jumped to the big leagues when he left for Nashville and signed with MCA-affiliated Decca Records in 1995. He’s since released two albums, including 1996’s “Used Heart for Sale” and his new “It Would Be You.”

Together they’ve sold 400,000 copies, according to SoundScan. “Those numbers aren’t very indicative of success,” Allan said. “My goals are much bigger than that. But you know what? It’s keeping me in the game. I think popularity goes in cycles, and country music is bound to go back to the traditional or Bakersfield sound. And when it does, I’ll be there.”

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The 30-year-old singer, guitarist and surfer has gotten close. He scored a Top 10 hit with “Her Man,” a tender ballad of redemption written by Kent M. Robbins. He returned to Orange County last week to film the video for his new single, “I’ll Take Today,” shot at the Huntington Beach Pier.

Allan describes it as “including some surfing but revolving around a kiss . . . it’s gonna be real artsy and black-and-white, like Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game.’ ”

Certainly Allan would love to see “I’ll Take Today” become as popular as Isaak’s moody gem. But he remains cautiously optimistic about its chances. He knows his Bakersfield-bred, neo-honky tonk runs counter to the prevailing commercial winds blowing out of Nashville.

Still, Allan said he favors story songs filled with the raw-edged emotions of everyday life to predictable pop-country ditties.

“I have to sing songs that move me, something that makes you laugh or cry or [ticks] you off . . . words that force out some kind of emotion,” said Allan, who relies almost exclusively on songs by other writers. “I think country music is about what happens during the week . . . it’s the songs of the working man. A lot of stuff that’s making it on the radio now is about what happens on the weekends. It’s mostly fluffy and poppy--and it kinda drives me nuts.”

“I try not to be affected by what’s happening on mainstream country radio,” he said. “I just try to find the best songs that I can, and then turn them into something I can be proud of. I’m fortunate that I have a following that appreciates that.”

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More than 1,000 of the faithful were there Sunday for Allan’s homecoming concert at Cowboy Boogie in Anaheim. They screamed, sang along and partied as Allan and his solid six-piece band cranked out two hours’ worth of varied, crowd-pleasing country music.

An engaging front man, Allan mixed material from his two albums with healthy servings of songs associated with Haggard, Owens, Johnny Horton and Conway Twitty.

At times, Allan sounded much the same as his Nashville pop-country brethren, both in his songs and some pandering to the bar crowd (“Are you all over 21? . . . You see, the more you drink, the better I’m gonna sound. . . . We prove that every night.”)

But more often than not, Allan and his mates displayed a deft hand working through a variety of material. Fueled by fiddler Ollie O’Shea, a splendid waltz titled “All I Had Going Is Gone” quickly drove couples to the dance floor. Haggard’s classic “Swingin’ Doors” was played with equal parts reverence and invention, and “Her Man” left a lasting impression as a bittersweet song of forgiveness and regret.

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Throughout the evening, Allan showed exceptional elasticity with his supple tenor. He recalled the otherworldly yearning of Jimmie Dale Gilmore in “Don’t Leave Her Lonely Too Long.” Later, pop-and-roots rocker Dave Edmunds came to mind during “Quarter in My Pocket,” a humorous, rockabilly tinged ditty written by Allan’s longtime guitarist, Jake Kelly. But nothing reached the heights of his powerful vocals during an edgy, nightmarish number titled “Wake Up Screaming.”

Sounding a bit raspier than usual, Allan told the audience that he recently got some steroid shots to bolster his ailing vocal cords. But whatever he lacked in refinement, he made up for with his spirited delivery.

“My favorite places to play are the small clubs and bars,” Allan said. “All the sweaty people who are drinkin’ and gettin’ drunk . . . there’s just a level of energy there . . . this vibe . . . that you just can’t touch in a sit-down theater or auditorium. . . .

“Onstage, we play different versions of the songs we recorded, and we don’t follow a set list,” he said. “I like to keep things loose and in the moment. I’ve always told guys coming into my band that if you play it like the record every night, it’ll drive me crazy and I’ll probably get rid of you. We stretch . . . because I want to be the best-sounding bar band there ever was.”