It’s hard to describe singer-songwriter and guitarist Steve Poltz. The word we hit upon is 'troubadour.'
"For me, it means somebody who just loves to travel. I always have loved to travel since I was a kid," said Poltz. "You know, my dad had a globe on his desk, and I loved just looking at it and going, 'What country is this?' And he would tell me about it. And then I thought, well, this is the ultimate job for me. I can just travel around, sing songs, and get paid for it. Sign me up. And so I've just done it for 40 years."
He's developed a cult-like following by mixing comedic songwriting and live performances at mid-size venues.
He also finds inspiration in some surprising situations. For instance, take his new song, If It Bleeds It Leads.
"I've always loved that line, 'if it bleeds, it leads'. I was sitting watching TV with people that were yelling at the screen because somebody came on the screen that they didn't like, who they found abhorrent, and so it scared the pets!" said Poltz. "I just left the room and went, 'I can never watch the news with you because you yelled back. You scream like they can hear you in the television set.' And so that's how that whole thing came together, and the song kind of wrote itself."
Or how about the time he was inspired to co-write You Were Meant for Me with the singer Jewel? The song went on to top the charts in the mid-'90s.
"I'm like a wild horse and I get up there and I've never written a set list and I don't know what I'm going to open with."Steve Poltz
"We were down in Mexico camping, and she didn't have a record deal yet, and I was in a band called the Rugburns. She and I were writing songs and hanging out all the time and we were the only people on the beach and these four or five Mexican federales [law enforcement] came down the beach and they were going to their boat and they saw us and they came up and started talking to us and they said, 'Do you want to come out on the boat with us?'"
"We said, 'yes'. And it turns out they were looking for drug smugglers, and we ended up on a drug bust with tons of marijuana — back in the 90s. Then there were guns and people arrested, and all the weed on the boat, and us going back to shore. And so that was where we wrote the song You Were Meant For Me!" said Poltz.
Poltz just released his 14th solo album and is bringing his show to the Tri-Counties.
What to expect? Least of all him.
"I'm like a wild horse," he said. "I get up there, and I've never written a set list, and I don't know what I'm going to open with. I don't know how it's going to end. So that's part of its magic, and that's what keeps me coming back and keeps me going to the well for more water because I want to see what happens next."
Steve Poltz performs on February 12 at Santa Barbara's Soho Restaurant and Music Club, and on the 13th at the Scherr Forum Theater in Thousand Oaks.
