Music: A blend of country and blues

When inspiration strikes, singer-songwriter Denis Degher simply picks up his iPhone and hits “record.”

An experienced recording artist, engineer and producer, Degher is constantly laying down tracks. His Paso Robles home boasts a small, sophisticated “control room” and a larger great room, the perfect space for recording jazz combos.

He’s even recorded tracks in the barrel room of his Paso Robles winery, Domaine Degher Wines. (According to Degher, those wooden barrels “really enhance the sound.”)

“You just have to be so in the moment and capture it when it’s there, because it can slip away instantaneously if you don’t grab it,” explained Degher, who goes by the stage name Sleepy Guitar Johnson.

On Saturday, the singer-songwriter will play songs from his latest album, “Cowboy Blues,” at Vinoteca Wine Bar in Paso Robles.

According to Degher, the setting is an appropriate one.

“I get my best compositions when I’ve had a couple glasses of wine,” he joked.

Turning point

Born in Ohio and raised in Southern California, Degher learned how to play guitar by age 12.

“I grew up listening to everything when I was a kid,” he said, from The Beach Boys to Bob Dylan.

He gained an appreciation for “real folk blues” — artists like Big Bill Broonzy, Robert Johnson and Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter— while studying literature and history at San Jose State.

After a brief stint as a “guitar-carrying vagabond,” Degher moved to Los Angeles to concentrate on music. Then, one day, he walked into Studio 76 on the Sunset Strip to record a demo.

Degher, then studying electronics and production at the Don Martin School of Radio and Television, started chatting with the studio owner about the record industry.

The next day, he said, he made the man an offer: “ ‘If I learn how to run your equipment, can I record my own songs here?’ He said. ‘Yes.’ ”

“In two or three years, I was working on major projects at big studios,” Degher recalled. “I went from zero to 100 mph.”

Degher eventually built his own recording studio, Red Zone Studios in Burbank and Santa Monica, working with the likes of No Doubt, Santana and Tupac Shakur.

Since moving to Paso Robles in 2003, Degher has dedicated his time to two passions: music and wine.

He released his first vintage in 2005 with the help of two Paso Robles winemakers, Marc Goldberg of Windward Vineyard and Stephan Asseo of L’Aventure Winery.

“I draw a parallel with the recording industry and wine,” Degher said. “It was natural. … I didn’t ask for it. It just kind of came along.”

New direction

Degher has a natural knack for music as well.

His first album, “Let’s Ride,” came out in 2001, followed by “Whiskey Town” in 2003 and “The Mojo Sessions” in 2008. Last year, Degher re-released several tracks as “Just Music: The Instrumentals.”

Released in April on his label, Powered by Mojo, “Cowboy Blues” represents a new musical direction for Degher — away from traditional blues and toward country and Appalachian folk music.

“For me, the only difference between country and blues is how it’s presented,” said Degher, who sings and plays acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar, dobro and harmonica.

Blues purists would certainly recognize songs like “3 AM and A Hundred Miles to Go,” “Sometime Lover” and “Big Assed Gal/Fine Assed Gal.”

One of the album’s more humorous tracks, “Get Off Your Cell Phone and F…ing Drive,” was inspired by a man Degher spotted driving an 18-wheeler down Highway 101.

“I got really mad at him and wrote this song,” the songwriter said with a chuckle.

Unlike most artists, who write 15 or 20 songs before heading into the studio, Degher records his songs as they come to him, he said.

He wrote and recorded “Honey Are You So Bad (Or Honey Are You Just No Good)” — inspired by a relationship gone sour — in a couple of days.

“I woke up and stuff just poured out of me,” Degher said.

After laying down guitar and vocal tracks, Degher brought in his band: bassist Jim Morris, drummer Daryl Voss, and Don Teschner, who plays mandolin, lap steel and fiddle.

Pianist Carl Byron played on “Going Back to California,” a song Degher originally wrote in college.

Degher estimates that it took about 18 months to put “Cowboy Blues” together. True to form, he’s already working on another album.

“I’ve already written two songs since this record’s been done,” he admitted. “I can’t control myself, I guess. I’m always writing new things.”

Reach Sarah Linn at 781-7907.