Cowboy hat or no, country is catching on

Thriving in US, music slowly expands local roots

Joe Dorley of Pembroke performing at open mike night at The Banner in Rockland. Says Dorley: ''You still have to go back to the standards.'' (PHOTOS BY Justine Hunt/Globe Staff)

A few seconds of Garth Brooks's "Two of a Kind, Workin' on a Full House" was all it took to draw three men still dressed in polo shirts and shorts from a round of golf toward the British Beer Company in Walpole.

"I like country," said Bob McQuaid of Scituate, talking over the fervent but playful objections of his C&W-hating friends. "What do I like about country music? The reality. They're just songs about life."

In the end, McQuaid's friends won out, and the three headed home. McQuaid may have lost that battle, but folks like him and the dozen or so bar patrons who sang along and danced to the Country Mile band on that Wednesday night seem to be winning a war for mainstream acceptance of country music in the Boston area.

Na tional country-and-western acts routinely pack Gillette Stadium (this year's New England Country Music Festival sold out in 15 minutes). Local and regional country bands performing around the South Shore, however, have found themselves in recent years largely relegated to VFW halls and a shrinking list of community bars.

A relatively small but tight-knit country music scene has managed to thrive for decades in Southeastern Massachusetts, thanks largely to the Massachusetts Country Music Awards Association. But as the Abington-based group prepares for its 30th annual awards ceremony tomorrow evening at Lombardo's in Randolph, it's facing a time of transition.

A small but growing number of bars in the region are trying to capitalize on the success of national artists by offering patrons a chance to see local country talent. Meanwhile, more young people appear to be gravitating toward the genre, but they're being lured by music that sounds more like Top 40 or rock 'n' roll than ever before.

The crowds at such new venues as the British Beer Company, as well as the scene's older haunts, are increasingly mixed in age and in predilection for "new" or "old" country, requiring the state association to expand its horizons.

When the association was founded, 30 years ago, the scene was bustling, according to charter member and current president Don Joseph.

"There were more full-time bands out there, because they could earn a living doing it," said Joseph, an Abington resident.

"Now it's harder to earn a living doing it, so there are more part-time bands working full-time jobs."

Joseph noted a general decline in live music venues throughout the region over the past five to 10 years, which he attributed to stricter drunken-driving laws and the availability of less-costly entertainment such as karaoke and disc jockeys. Others point to a 2004 law requiring clubs to have fire sprinklers, or a tendency of line dancers to drink less than more stationary fans.

Regardless of the cause, it's more difficult today for promoters like Joseph to ignite the country music grass roots.

Ironically, this is the case as overall demand for country music has soared, according to Tom Wall, general manager of the Providence-based country radio station WCTK.

Wall said the past five years have seen a "quickening of the growth" in the region's affinity for so-called new country music, which tends to hide its twang behind poppy guitar riffs.

The mass appeal has been slow to translate into widespread support for the predominantly "old country" local acts, keeping the scene intimate at such venues as The Banner, an Irish-style pub in Rockland that holds a country open mike on Sunday evenings.

Last Sunday found The Banner crowded with regulars, many adorned with Harley-Davidson T-shirts and jackets, many sipping from bottles of domestic beer.

Four women carved out a line-dance floor with their boots, in between the bar and some tables against the wall, grabbing as dance partners some who tried to pass. One of them, Judy Osborne of Abington, has spent nearly every Sunday at The Banner since she heard about it a year ago.

"You know, we always say this is our therapy," Osborne said while taking a break on the patio. "It's just a very big family."

If the South Shore country music scene is a family, one of its patriarchs was seated at the other end of the patio. Joe Dorley of Pembroke has played the music in this area for more than three decades, and he's skeptical of young acts who stray too far from country's roots.

"There's a couple of clubs right now that say they want the modern country, the Top 40 stuff, but you can't do more than a night of it," said Dorley. "You still have to go back to the standards."

Eric Holt has no problem with the standards. The 30-year-old Brockton resident opened his two-song turn at the microphone with "Folsom Prison Blues" - though Johnny Cash's words rang somewhat discordant with Holt's baggy jeans, oversized T-shirt, and white baseball cap.

"This is me," said Holt. "I have a couple of cowboy hats, but I'm working on the new thing."

The new country scene, as personified by Holt, has found its South Shore home at Zahn's Bahn, a side bar of Kilroy's Cafe near Quincy's Fore River Shipyard. Braintree resident Josh Zahn took over booking the side bar last November, and now mixes a healthy serving of new country, Top 40, and rock in assorted formats on Thursdays through Saturdays.

The goal, Zahn said, is to attract younger patrons who like new country but may be fans of other popular music styles as well. A recent Thursday line dancing night, for example, featured country-style line dancing to pop tunes from Sean Paul and Leona Lewis.

Back at the British Beer Company, Country Mile tried to work young and old with a mix of standards and newer country material. Not persuaded, much of the crowd remained fixated on the Red Sox game, while a few danced near the stage.

"If you have some fun, I won't tell anybody tomorrow that you did," lead singer Kevin White of Raymond, N.H., called out before launching into a Dwight Yoakum tune.

White has read the reports of country's growing popularity, but said he hasn't seen it boost attendance at local shows. Then again, he's not in it for the glory. He's learned to accept the role of his band in the region's music scene.

"New England, as a rule, is a puritanical society that doesn't admit that it likes a lot of things that the rest of the world likes," White said. "Our job is to get them to just loosen up, chill out, and have a good time."