Country-Fried Sound

The roots-country flavor of Red Meat recalls the Bakersfield-bred style of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, or even the Modesto sounds of the Maddox Brothers and Sister Rose.

Except that this brand of West Coast honky-tonk emanates from an unlikely place: San Francisco, best-known for its 49ers, spectacular bridge, sourdough bread and liberal politics.

It surprises some fans to learn that this group of transplanted Midwesterners formed seven years ago in a Mission District garage.

“People have said they thought it was strange that we didn’t move to Nashville or Texas, but we kind of like it here,” said singer Smelley Kelley, 43, from his San Francisco residence. “I’ve lived here for 20 years now, and it’s home. It’s an open place, one that’s accepting of weirdos . . . and you’re definitely a weirdo if you’re a hillbilly living in San Francisco.

“But when you move to a larger city, you can lose some of your identity. Sometimes you even become something that isn’t quite as good as what you came from. . . . And in my case, I had to get back in touch with who . . . I was. Forming Red Meat was the perfect way for me to do that.”

Each member’s roots touch small-town America. Kelley (born David Kelley) and singer and multi-instrumentalist Scott Young come from Keokuk, Iowa; bassist Jill Olson is from nearby Ottumwa; electric guitarist Michael Montalto is from Ohio; steel guitarist Max Butler is from New Mexico; and drummer Les James is an Oklahoma native.

They grew up immersed in classic country music. Olson says hearing Patsy Cline’s “Greatest Hits” changed his life; Kelley cites Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” as “bigger than life”; and it was a mixture of Cole Porter, Owens and Johnny Cash that hooked Young.

Olson, Kelley and Young made separate treks to San Francisco in search of adventures. In the early ‘90s, Young and Kelley were playing in the Genuine Diamelles, an a capella group self-described as a “psychedelic glee club.”Meanwhile, Olson and Montalto were members of a folk-pop band called the Movie Stars. The two bands occasionally shared the same bill, and when each simultaneously split up--and with the four principals looking to return to their musical roots--the nucleus of Red Meat was born.

Raw but promising, the group’s 1997 debut, “Meet Red Meat,” reached No. 18 on Gavin’s Americana chart and launched the sextet on its first national tour.

The album also caught the ear of roots-music guru Dave Alvin, who agreed to produce Red Meat’s sophomore effort, “13,” in 1998. The group earned praise while opening for Owens, Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, the Derailers, Asleep at the Wheel and the Blasters, among other roots notables.

Giving the Sound a Little Tweak

With Alvin returning to the production chair, Red Meat’s forthcoming “Alameda County Line”--scheduled for release Feb. 6 on Ranchero Records--not only fine-tunes the band’s classic country sound but adds a new wrinkle or two.

Singer-guitarist Young has emerged as the main songwriter among four in the band and often sprinkles color and humor in with unusual rhyming schemes, as in this lyric from “Nashville Fantasy”: “I want to walk down the street where Hank Williams staggered / Maybe I’ll even get to meet Merle Haggard.”

“What struck me the most at first about the band was Scott Young,” Alvin said from his Los Angeles home. “I thought, ‘Here’s a guy who’s a great songwriter, but he doesn’t even know it yet.’ I rarely made any suggestions, but when I felt a song could be better if we had a different verse, Scott--whether it was his song or another band member’s--would leave the studio and return five minutes later with an amazing new verse.”

Alvin, who’s produced albums for the Derailers, Katy Moffatt and Tom Russell, among others, added: “When I produce, I try not to bug people because you’re just going to get resentment if you shove stuff down people’s throats.

“That said, one of the reasons I like to do this is to help people not make some of the mistakes I’ve made--or ones I’ve seen others make.”

Helping Definition of ‘Country’

And what are Red Meat’s chances in a pop-dominated country climate?

“All I know is that the most familiar scene after a Red Meat show is hearing someone who’s been dragged to the show by a friend say, ‘I didn’t realize this is country music,’ ” Kelley said. “So I tell them, ‘The next time somebody plays something awful for you and calls it country, you have my permission to tell them, ‘No it ain’t.’ ”

Alvin, who also was a co-executive producer of the 1994 album “Tulare Dust--A Songwriters’ Tribute to Merle Haggard,” is convinced that classic honky-tonk will always have an audience.

“Like the Chicago blues, it’s a style that will go in and out of vogue, but the Ray Price kind of shuffle or the Buck Owens-Merle Haggard thing will never go away,” he said. “Whenever you go into a country bar, on the jukebox between Shania [Twain] and Faith [Hill], you’re going to hear one of those songs--sooner or later.”

SHOW TIME

Red Meat’s pre-release party is at Abilene Rose, 10830 Warner Ave., Fountain Valley. Friday, 9 p.m. Rockabilly ace Deke Dickerson follows at 11 p.m. $8. (714) 963-1700; https://www.rosenews.com.