POP MUSIC REVIEW : Soul-Rockin’ the Daylights Out of the Place : R&B; Veteran Act Don and Dewey Turn an Afternoon Setting Into a Saturday Night

SANTA ANA —  With its predominantly Nordic cuisine and clientele and austerely tony atmosphere, Gustaf Anders restaurant isn’t exactly Funky Town. But even in a daylight brunch setting Sunday afternoon, the veteran R&B; act Don and Dewey managed to tear the roof off the place.

It’s been more than 30 years since Don and Dewey introduced such enduring staples as “I’m Leaving It All Up to You,” “Koko Joe,” “Farmer John” (recently revived by Neil Young on his critics’ fave “Ragged Glory” album) and “Justine” (covered by the Blasters and John Doe on a just-released Blasters retrospective).

But despite three decades and significant changes of membership in the group, it still can rock a house like no one’s business.

Though the brilliant violinist Don (Sugarcane) Harris has left the fold, there still is a Don in the band--drummer Don Hendricks. A veteran of James Brown and Sammy Davis Jr.’s bands, he’s a powerhouse drummer and a capable singer. Singer/keyboardist Ron Ellington Shy, who has worked with versions of the Drifters and Coasters, also has worked with founding member Dewey Terry over the years. Along with handling the lion’s share of the vocals, Shy created a full band sound with his Rhodes synth and keyboard bass (though sometimes the pre-fab synth tones made one wish he’d had a more expressive instrument to work with, such as a Hammond B3 organ).

Singer/guitarist Terry is the one who originated the wildly rocking Don and Dewey sound and penned the group’s hits (with the exception of “Koko Joe,” by a young Sonny Bono). Fittingly, Terry has the Statue of Liberty painted on the speaker grille of his amplifier: He’s an inspiringly free-flying, unfettered performer.

Like his mentor, Louisiana bluesman Guitar Slim, Terry makes music that is almost pure mood, from his gospel-shout vocals to the frenzied, logic-defying torrents of reverb-soaked notes he flails from his guitar with his thumb. And further like Guitar Slim--whose wild 1950s stage antics have entered the realm of myth--Terry is a propulsive showman, throwing a dictionary of body English into every solo.

Though Terry’s is the name with the history attached, the trio is very much a band of equals. Both Shy and Hendricks did a splendid job of replicating the vocal sounds of the oldies they tackled, which included a Drifters’ medley and meandering across one of Barry White’s landscapes of luuurve . More important, they were able to infuse other covers, and both new and old originals, with lives of their own.

Each of the trio’s members has spent time working in Las Vegas, a gig that often robs musicians of their souls. The Don and Dewey show isn’t entirely unaffected by Vegas’ fool’s-gold smile: Some of the between-song patter and routines, such as a protracted Ray Charles joke, seemed glib and overworked.

But those were only brief digressions in long sets that were full of immediacy and feeling where it mattered--in the music. A medley of “Shout” and “Bo Diddley” found Shy stepping from behind the keys to engage in some impossibly adroit dance steps before picking up an alto sax and honking out wild riffs while strolling the room.

While a first-set version of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” was just a straight Satchmo imitation, a request for the song in the second set yielded Shy’s own, far more emotive, interpretation.

Hendricks led the vocal on the new original “Wait a Minute,” James Brown’s “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” and the Memphis soul standard “634-5789,” each of which evolved into extended dance-ready workouts punctuated by Terry’s stinging guitar.

Those free flights, and the Don and Dewey originals “Farmer John” and “I’m Leaving It All Up to You” allowed the band’s own identity to shine through the clearest. It is that individuality and the pleasure the group clearly has in asserting it that are its strongest assets. One hopes the future will find Don and Dewey putting their own music to the front more, where it deserves to be.

Maybe the crowd at Anders can always be found singing, waving their arms in the air and dancing the funky chicken. If not, you can at least count on it again next Sunday; Don and Dewey have been held over to play then as well, starting at 1 p.m.

They also can also be caught Thurday at Irvine’s International Pub and Grill (with an early, 5 p.m start) and Friday and Saturday nights at 9 at Jasper’s Restaurant in Santa Ana.