Whole Lotta Country

Whatever curiosity one may attach to line dancing, it’s business as usual for Caught Red-Handed, the veteran band that provides the weekend soundtrack for all those dance-floor critters wearing pointy shoes. Not only do they have a clever name, but the quintet is the hardest-working country band in this here westernmost little hunk of Oklahoma.

Formerly Chuy’s, Boot Scooters is a place from which partying rednecks can watch boats in the Channel Islands Harbor sail off into the sunset. Inside, there’s a good-sized dance floor with the basic bar and plenty of tables and chairs for dining or just plain lurking.

The menu is a four-page epic with the emphasis on western fare, where barbecue is king. There’s also a separate fun room featuring pool, pinball and those kinder, gentler-for-the-’90s phony dart games. The cover charge at Boot Scooters is the ever-affordable free and there’s plenty of free parking too.

According to the T-shirts worn by the staff, Boot Scooters is “a little bit country, a little bit rock ‘n’ roll,” but on Friday and Saturday nights, it’s a whole lotta country because the place is packed with coastal cowboys.

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Caught Red-Handed has been around longer than the venue itself. There have been a few personnel changes over the years, but these days the lineup features Alan Flaa on pedal steel guitar, Mike Mormanis on lead guitar, Jim Monahan (not the politician) on bass, Troy Robinson on guitar and lead vocals, and Jon Cowsill on drums.

Everybody sings in the band, and plenty of those in the crowd dance. This is as it should be, according to the drummer.

“Everything’s going good,” Cowsill said. “We’ve been together for 12 years now--that’s longer than any band in Ventura County--longer than the Ska Daddyz, and longer than the band that played at halftime at the Super Bowl, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.”

Despite the sea of pickup trucks on local roads and all those “Cowboy Up” stickers, the country scene is waning, said Cowsill, a DJ at KHAY and thus a guy who has the drinkin’, drivin’, cheatin’ and whinin’ thang figured out.

“Everything goes in cycles,” he said. “Country music was trendy back in ’89 or ‘90, back when Garth [Brooks] and Clint [Black] first came out. Everyone wanted to be country and wear boots and jeans. We call those weekend cowboys ‘closet cowboys.’ Later the country scene cooled off, and now there’s only a few places to play. There’s only one in Santa Barbara--the Galleon Room. In Ventura County, there’s the Ban-Dar, which is up for sale, Boot Scooters and Borderline in Thousand Oaks.”

One thing that keeps Caught Red-Handed working is its vast repertoire, not to mention tight playing. The band has a couple of CDs, and frontman Robinson has a solo album--all for sale at the gigs. They know just about every redneck anthem about any truck or train, no-good woman or bad bottle of booze ever written by every two-named Billy Bob.

“We have about a dozen original songs, and the rest [are] covers,” Cowsill said. “We like to say we know every song except three. We’re not doing this for money, but just for the fun. We love each other like brothers, and we play high energy fun; and if it’s from the heart, it’s still country.”

DETAILS

Caught Red-Handed at Boot Scooters, 2800 S. Harbor Blvd., Oxnard; 9 p.m. today and Saturday; free; 382-0735.

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Tonight’s musical offering at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Ventura has plenty of reasons to recommend it, not the least of which is the lineup featuring fiddle whiz Phil Salazar and Roy and Daphne Jones, plus assorted friends to be named later.

For starters, a church gig instantly erases all those bouncers that hate your face, all those drunks acting stupid and all those long lines to the bathroom.

None of those recurring bummers will be transacted tonight, just good music, and plenty of it.

The Joneses are a couple of Texans who have been here long enough to lose their accents but not their love of classic R&B; and blues songs. Formerly the brains behind House of Games, the duo also has plenty of originals. Roy plays guitar and Daphne has a voice that can fill any room.

“Fiddlin’ Phil” Salazar, nearly as ubiquitous as all those girls who won’t dance with you, has sat in with nearly every local band, plus he’s a recurring player in two of the most popular outfits, Acadiana and the Rincon Ramblers.

A nationally known player, Salazar tours with John McEuen, formerly of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Salazar had little choice in the matter. His father, Frank Salazar of Ventura County Symphony fame, had his son begin practicing the violin when he was 5 years old. It worked.

These days, he’s so good he rarely practices, but just shows up. Salazar is also a teacher, grooming the next generation of fiddle players, few of whom have taken the rock world by storm.

Salazar’s latest project is a collaboration with Jonathan McEuen (John’s kid) on a bluegrass-flavored album of Grateful Dead songs. One of the highlights of the album is Daphne Jones doing “Don’t Let Go,” an old R&B; song.

Will Salazar bring his fiddle or is it a violin? “It’s mostly style,” he said. “For Beethoven, you play a violin, for the Rincon Ramblers, you play a fiddle.”

DETAILS

Phil Salazar and Roy and Daphne Jones at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 4949 Foothill Drive, Ventura, 7:30 p.m. today; $10; 644-3898.

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With a face like a battered mud flap and a voice like the gravel beneath it, country music legend Willie Nelson will unleash his monotone twang during a pair of performances slated for Monday and Wednesday nights at the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks.

Mr. Been There Done That Y’all has been around so long he can scarcely be remembered as a youngster.

As not only the most famous country music star but also the ultimate outlaw, the 66-year-old Nelson has appealed to ropers as well as dopers in a crossover career that has spanned nearly 40 years, characterized by restlessness and constant experimentation.

Nelson has recorded more than 100 albums, won Grammys, written tons of hit songs and recorded tons more.

He still tours several months a year, and there are few places the Texan hasn’t been. His collaborators include everyone from Bob Dylan to Julio Iglesias.

In 1985, Nelson helped establish Farm Aid to help family farmers and has remained a passionate champion of the common man.

Kris Kristofferson, thus far, has the best Willie quote, calling his pal “a carved-in-granite Samurai-poet warrior Gypsy guitar-pickin’ wild man with a heart as big as Texas and the greatest sense of humor in the West.”

DETAILS

Willie Nelson at the Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, 7:30 p.m. Monday and 8:30 p.m. Wednesday; $29.50, $39.50 or $49.50; 449-2787.