Rockabilly

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.

"One thing that was different about Elvis," Wanda Jackson drawled one recent night between songs at Hollywood's Bar Deluxe, "is that he never did warm up his voice before a show. He warmed up his body." With that, she wiggled her torso as if a shiver had run down her spine. "At first, it looked strange, him loosening up, but once I saw him play, I understood. He'd start with his head, then his sneer.

Southern California has been a breeding ground for rockabilly bands almost from the music's inception. Angelenos Eddie Cochran and Ricky Nelson laid down some of the genre's finest tracks in the late '50s, even if their brand of L.A. 'billy was slicker and poppier than the work of rural pioneers such as Elvis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Burnette.

The '90s rockabilly revival came to Orange County in a big way Saturday, with a four-band lineup at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana. Fortunately, each offered its own variations on the familiar recipe and demonstrated just how wonderfully timeless this raw, stripped-down sound can be. Veteran singer-guitarist Ronnie Dawson capped the 4 1/2-hour program with a generous, rousing, nearly two-hour performance that, for the most part, placed his feet firmly on modern soil.

The 12 Steps, the two-step and a step in the right direction are all about the same to the Reverend Horton Heat. They're varying distances to the bar. With a new album, aptly named "It's Martini Time," recently released, the band--the Reverend (Jim Heath) on guitar, Jimbo Wallace on upright bass and Scott Churilla on drums--will play their self-described "fast drinking music" Saturday night at the Ventura Theatre. Opening will be the Luna Chicks.

The expression "keep on keepin' on" has a beads-and-incense, hippie-era tinge to it, but it's hard to think of a phrase that better sums up the life of Ronnie Dawson, a bristle-cut, twangy-voiced Texan who is a throwback to and a remnant of the early days of rock 'n' roll. As a teenager in the 1950s, Dawson scratched out a small footnote for himself in rock's early history by playing stripped-down rockabilly music.

For every fan of early rock 'n' roll, there's one act that stands above the rest. For some it's the young, hip-swaying Elvis, for others the demonically inspired Jerry Lee Lewis, and for still others, it's the outrageously salacious Little Richard. For my money, it's Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps. This explosive, novalike unit played with all the thunder of the classic black rhythm & blues acts.

Upon first glance at his track record, one might think that Brian Setzer had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the second half of the 20th century. Setzer--former front man of the latter-day, rockabilly Stray Cats and current leader of a 17-piece swing orchestra that bears his name--has forged a career in the '80s and '90s using the music of the '40s and '50s as a foundation.

The hardest working band in the 805 area code, the Roadhouse Rockers--accent on "road" and "rock"--will stop by Nicholby's in Ventura on Friday night to throw a CD release wingding for its latest, "He's My Tiger." The Santa Barbara-based Roadhouse Rockers have been at it for 14 years--a veritable eternity for a band, considering how few make it beyond the "Hey, let's start a group" phase. The Rockers feature Tony Balbinot on guitar.