In July, Off the Wagon will begin hosting a monthly show at the Pacific Beach Alehouse. Does the fact of choice beach gigs mean that country western bands, almost absent from the local club scene in recent years are making a comeback?

“The insurgence into PB and OB is mainly because we all live close to the beach,” says Ward James, “and all our friends do as well, so it's easier for us to bring crowds out to PB than Santee or Lakeside.”

James says they will teach line dancing as well. ”If you look at [country radio] KSON night at In Cahoots in Mission Valley, the bulk of the people there are from west of the 805, so there's a huge country fan-base near the beach.”

Off the Wagon will bring their assorted covers of artists like George Strait, Garth Brooks, and Alan Jackson as well as more recent hits by the Zac Brown Band, Billy Currington, and Joe Nichols to an audience not necessarily known to be in possession of boots, Wranglers, or Stetsons.

“We're playing something different from all the other bands, yet completely familiar. I mean, who doesn't know the words to "Friends in Low Places"?