Many people are an integral part of what makes Ocean Beach special. But few may be as visible to the public as Michael Head. He seems to be everywhere. Owner of Headtrap Music Studios, he works with many of San Diego\u2019s top artists as producer or engineer. Head also books the weekly Ocean Beach Farmers Market musical entertainment, a blur of activity each Wednesday as he strives to get the sound just right. Meanwhile he\u2019s also responsible for much of the music heard at the annual Ocean Beach Street Fair and Chili Cook-Off. But what he enjoys most is making music, especially with his band the Country Rockin\u2019 Rebels. A graduate of the Guitar Institute of Technology and a native of Virginia, Head immediately became entrenched in the local music scene when he came to San Diego. Built around Head\u2019s music and that of primary composer Tristan Luhrs, the Country Rockin\u2019 Rebels, who will appear at the OB Farmers Market on July 20, have made a name for themselves over the last five years as a duo, but more recently have expanded, adding Mark Eppler (slide guitar), “Willy Boy” Dixon (bass) and Steve Tomahawk (drums) to the mix. They\u2019re a country band, with the prerequisite influences like Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard, but they are also a group fond of the blues, from its beginnings all the way up to the White Stripes. “That is a more modern take than some people might expect, but it\u2019s the bluesier side of our music,” said Head. The band also moonlights as a straight blues group, The Moneymen, whenever Luhrs isn\u2019t available. The Country Rockin\u2019 Rebels already have three albums in the can. But with a new line up, “It\u2019s almost a whole new band,” Head said. While he plays country music now, he first got heavily into playing because of Led Zeppelin. “I graduated from high school in the mid-1980s, so perhaps I was a little behind the times,” said Head. “But when I saw their movie \u2018The Song Remains the Same\u2019 and saw Jimmy Page, I thought, \u2018I want to do that. I want a Les Paul.\u2019” He points out that the Country Rockin\u2019 Rebels is a concept as much as it is a band. “We had this sort of Bowie-with-a-twang thing going,” Head said. The idea is not far off from Bowie\u2019s classic “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” concept album about a music star\u2019s emergence, fall from grace and revival. “The first album was the start,” Head said. “By the second, we had it so Tristan is the Country Rockin\u2019 Rebel. We built the band around the concept. I know it\u2019s a little weird. “We already have the next disc mapped out \u2014 “The Return of\u2026” Head said. “It\u2019s all based on Tristan\u2019s music. I write a song here or there, but basically I produce the music. I\u2019m DJ Jazzy Jeff in the background and he\u2019s the Fresh Prince. That\u2019s just the way it is.” Playing live, the group can be a bit freeform. But Head said he likes it that way. “It depends on the gig, but we can play for hours,” he said. “It\u2019s a 50\/50 mix of covers and originals, though for gigs under an hour we tend to go primarily with our own music, maybe a cover or three.” Head has made music with lots of groups in different genres over the years, but he said the Country Rockin\u2019 Rebels are special to him. “I can play in a lot of different styles,” he said. “If I made a CD, it would be very unfocused. My dad had a record store and my mom had a little Gibson dove guitar. She listened to Emmy Lou Harris and Linda Ronsdtadt, so I always had this country core to my music. There were always acoustic guitars around. I love blues. I love rock. I love going out and being a rock star, but this is a little more comfortable for me.” The Country Rockin\u2019 Rebels perform at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20 at the Ocean Beach Farmers Market, located at Newport Avenue and Bacon Street. All ages. www.reverbnation.com\/countryrockinrebels.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Many people are an integral part of what makes Ocean Beach special. But few may be as visible to the public as Michael Head. He seems to be everywhere. Owner of Headtrap Music Studios, he works with many of San Diego\u2019s top artists as producer or engineer. Head also books the weekly Ocean Beach Farmers […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":270262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Rockin\u2019 Rebels set to storm OB Farmers Market","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-270261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}