Nashville Isn’t in Jerry Jeff’s Country : Music: Walker is content with his recording business that’s out of the mainstream. He and his Gonzo Survivors play tonight at the Coach House.

In the empire of country music, all roads are supposed to lead to Nashville.

Jerry Jeff Walker, however, is content to travel his own byways and stay clear of country music’s business hub.

Walker, who plays today at the Coach House, has his own cottage industry going in Austin, Tex., his home for the past 20 years. In 1986, Walker and his wife, Susan, launched Tried & True Music, a custom record label that has released his last three albums, including the new “Navajo Rug.” Tried & True, which is distributed nationally by Rykodisc, has one other act: Chris Wall, a honky-tonk-singing Orange County expatriate who will open at the Coach House for Walker and his Gonzo Survivors band. (Related story, F2.)

In a recent telephone interview from Austin, Walker said he is happy living within the limitations of the small-is-beautiful ethic that running an independent label demands. One limitation is traveling light out of necessity. Walker is playing this tour with a three-man version of the Gonzo Survivors that leaves his piano player and steel guitarist back in Austin. The singer said his small plane will only fit so many bodies and so much stuff.

Walker, who turns 49 next month, said he has no wish to be pulled into Nashville’s orbit--even if that might mean a bigger plane or a bigger bus for his frequent road trips. He says it would mean bigger headaches, too.

“No,” Walker said flatly when asked whether he has ambitions of signing with a major label. “(That would mean) roadies and light shows and a lot of warped antagonistic people” along for the tours. “No, thanks, I’ve done that. I like it fine now, and I’m doing fine as it is.”

Best known for writing the touching story-song, “Mr. Bojangles,” and for such rowdier standards as “Sangria Wine” and “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother,” Walker has settled into an easygoing songwriting groove on his recent releases. Known in the ‘70s as a tippler and hell-raiser of the first magnitude, Walker has turned into a bard of settled, domestic pleasures, reflecting what he says is a happy home life with his wife and two children.

“There seems to be a great propensity in this business to write tear-jerkers, ‘You-left-me’ songs,” he said. “I thought, ‘Why don’t I count my blessings by looking at what I have?’ I’m pretty much an optimistic guy. The longer you bitch and moan, the longer you make it last.”

The exception to the contented note sounded on “Navajo Rug” is “Blue Mood,” in which Walker chronicles a funk brought on by the sorts of setbacks that even a positive thinker has to confront. The melancholy but sweetly rendered song laments the deaths of two fellow Texans, Stevie Ray Vaughan and humorist John Henry Faulk, dwells for a verse on Walker’s own bout with back surgery a while back, and finds the singer wondering whether he has achieved all he set out to do.

Walker points out that “Navajo Rug” has made the country album charts, making him believe that it’s a sign that he is achieving some impact while going the independent route.

“It shows that we’re available, we’re around for that much action,” he said. “Everybody seems to think that by doing your own stuff, you’re just little.” Walker’s visibility figures to get another boost starting April 13, when he will take over as host of “The Texas Connection,” a country-music cable television series on The Nashville Network. He will start his run as the show’s emcee and interviewer with a special segment featuring Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson as his guests.

As for the Nashville connection, Walker can live without it. “Austin is still a place to create and write and play,” he said. “Nashville is the business center. They forget that the bottom line of it all is still the song. If you listen to any length of time to your country station, there’s this surface thing going all the time. You need something that makes you feel the human being (who’s singing) has cared about what he said.”

Jerry Jeff Walker & the Gonzo Survivors and Chris Wall play today at 8 p.m. at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. Tickets: $18.50. Information: (714) 496-8930.