Music Preview: Singer-guitarist Lee Harper mixes first-rate skills with decades-long musical chops

Veteran country singer Lee Harper’s relaxed, full-throated brand of honky-tonk merrymaking has a magnetic appeal, and his regular first Friday gig at Joe’s Great American bar keeps the dance floor packed and the crowd’s spirits high. The singer-guitarist’s blues-tinged style has been burnished over decades of playing beer joints and dance jobs, and is clearly marked by the rich mixture of influences he soaked up in hometown San Antonio, Texas.

“My dad worked at KTSA radio in San Antonio,” Harper said. “So I was around my music my whole life. We used to go see Willie Nelson when I was a kid and then later I was hanging out with the Sir Douglas Quintet, Doug Sahm and Augie Meyers; it was just a magic time. There were all the conjuntos and the German bands, a lot of great blues, and the whole San Antonio R&B scene, the West Side horns, so many tremendous artists. It was a real collision of cultures — Austin was like Berkeley, and the rednecks and hippies often didn’t get along too well, until Willie finally got really big.”

Of all Texas’ formidable musical traditions, whether Bob Wills’ hot fiddle, George Jones Shakespearean tragedies, Lefty Frizzell’s celestial romanticism or Waylon Jennings Outlaw defiance, the multicultural, groove-centric San Antonio approach is one of the Lone Star State’s most irresistible sounds. It’s a singular musical quality, typified by Sahm’s “She’s About a Mover,” and the Texas Tornados’ “Hey Baby Que Paso,” one that Harper carries around in his hip pocket, and it still sets him apart from many of his California colleagues.

“I came out here in ‘79, when things were starting to get really hot with the whole Urban Cowboy thing.” Harper said. “There was country music everywhere, guys that were playing Led Zeppelin the week before were suddenly doing Charlie Daniels. I started playing all the clubs, worked at the Palomino a lot.”

Although the Whittier-based Harper, who won the California Country Music Assn. Entertainer of the Year in 1994, works as a chemist by day, he maintains a heavy schedule of club dates throughout Southern California and has long since established himself as a first-rate musician and a reliable draw.

“I’ve been doing this monthly gig at Joe’s for 10 years now,” Harper said. “And it’s always great. We go from George Jones to the Rolling Stones and I’ve always got some phenomenal musicians with me. Through some weird twistory of history I’ve had some of the guys who used to back up the Texas Tornados, I’ve been doing “Que Paso” for years, long before it was a hit.”

“Everything just bends around in music,” Harper said. “Delaney Bramlett was a dear friend, we worked together a lot, we lost him way too early. I still play with Augie, he was out here two months ago and we had a great time. Ronnie Mack comes in to Joe’s. We have Chad Watson and Harry Orlove, Dean Park on steel.”

“We always start it out country, get the dancers out there, make sure they’re happy but then, anything goes. I might throw in some Velvet Underground. It’s kind of a mix of folk rock, country and rock ‘n’ roll. But it’s not what they’re passing off as country nowadays — that compressed sound, it all just sounds the same. I can’t distinguish between the men and women anymore. The world has changed so much. I guess that just makes me another old guy lamenting over where the music went.”

But Harper is striking back with a new album, “To Grill a Mockingbird,” set for a fall release (“My whole life I had to live with Harper Lee, so I figure I get to hit a lick back”).

“Music is so important,” Harper said. “I still love it — the joy of writing a song, the joy of being out in the crowd, being with great musicians and making music that leaves the people smiling. That’s what we do — they all know they’re going to have a hangover but they leave happy.”

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Who: Lee Harper　

Where: Joe’s Great American Bar & Grill, 4311 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank

When: Friday, Sept. 2, 9 p.m.　

Cost: Free

More info: (818) 729-0805 or www.joesgreatbar.com

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JONNY WHITESIDE is a veteran music journalist based in Burbank and author of “Ramblin’ Rose: the Life & Career of Rose Maddox” and “Cry: the Johnnie Ray Story.”