Music Review: Country artist Glenn Allan Britain seeks relationships in his music

Life is difficult for any artist, but pursuit of a country music career can be particularly challenging. It’s a form ruled by numerous stylistic agencies, all constantly waging internecine war for commercial and creative primacy, and the country aspirant needs not just raw talent but also either great good fortune or an insider advantage.

Singer-songwriter Glenn Allan Britain, who begins a weekly residency at Pickwick Bowl’s Riverside Concert Hall on Sunday, Dec. 6, had all of those attributes but didn’t even realize it. “I discovered country music when I was a kid, started playing guitar, just banging around,” Britain said. “I got on the sixth-grade talent show and just kept going, all over, here and there — chasing the original music thing, which can be a very difficult thing to chase.”

After gigging all over the Southwest and doing a five-year stretch in Texas, Britain discovered a potent secret weapon, right in his own extended family — the renowned veteran Los Angeles guitarist Carmine Sardo.

“Carmine’s like my uncle, through marriage. I’ve known him for years, and he is always super gracious, so talented,” Britain said. “I call him the Psychedelic Cowboy, because he spent a lot of time hanging out with the Flying Burrito Brothers, all those country rock people.”

“And he always invites me to his jams; he usually has two or three going every week. He was doing one in North Hollywood. It was a low-end bar with high-end players, and I’d been writing all these songs, so I took ‘em down there to try ‘em out, and all the guys loved them. I was saying ‘I guess I should think about making a demo or try some kind of recording.’ And Carmine says, ‘Well, maybe I’ll introduce you to my buddy [Grammy-winning producer-guitarist] Pete Anderson. And I said ‘Oh well, yeah. OK!’”

“He took me over to Pete’s studio. He hands me a guitar and says ‘Play some songs.’ I did four or five and he just says ‘OK. Let’s make a plan.’ That was late 2011, early 2012 and now my album is out, it’s up on iTunes, all over. Almost all the guitar on the album is Pete.”

The resulting album, “Echoes of My Dreams,” is a potent, adventurous set. That big, fat, neon-lit rambunctious Anderson sound, which catapulted Dwight Yoakam to honky-tonk immortality 30 years ago, is as effective and appealing as ever, but here Anderson ups the ante ferociously. He entwines a spectrum-spanning range of sonics and color, and the songs twist and wind through an intoxicating, expanded amalgam of the blues-tinged, drinkin’, hurtin’, raving rock ‘n’ roll-adjacent territory that country music first proposed and defined in the midcentury post-war era.

Anderson’s guitar doesn’t just walk and talk: it testifies, providing Britain with simpatico support that allows the singer’s bruised, meditative vocals to wring the maximum amount of information and emotion from his lyrics.

From intimate acoustic country rock contemplations to full-blown Beale Street brass-driven R&B workouts, Britain and Anderson’s collaboration is fraught with creative adventure and a markedly liberated palette. It’s stone country to be sure, but there’s an audacity and one-hand-loose spontaneity that lends an even deeper appeal. And Britain operates on a very broad, almost universal scale.

“It’s all about growth, personal growth, and goes even beyond that,” Britain said. “For me, relationship is the strongest motivator. One-on-one relationships, of course, but also relationships to the community, to society and most important, relationship with your own spirit. And I hope I am saying this without sounding pretentious, but it’s a huge part of life, the growth of ourselves and of the world as a whole. And, also, discovery. I mean what else is there to be found? It’s like trying to discover the ancient secrets — discovery, writing is like that. You start with an idea, uncover it, develop it and find a larger thought.”

“I really like being part of the band, the feeling of the band, but I also like the quiet moments, when you are able to get some of the subtleties in there, and I really believe in the power of the lyric. When I finish a song and I feel good about the lyric, it’s very satisfying. I know I don’t have to worry about the music because with Pete, the band, taking part, I know that will be good. But I am in control of the lyric, and when I complete it, there’s a great sense of accomplishment.”

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What: Glenn Allan Britain

Where: Riverside Concert Hall at Pickwick Bowl, 1001 W. Riverside Dr., Burbank

When: every Sunday, beginning Dec. 6, 7 p.m.

Cost: free, two drink minimum

More info: (818) 848-8810, windsorlivemusic.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.”