Blues and brews

Losing his job was one of the best things that ever happened to Bill Utley.

Unemployed after 25 years in the mainframe computer business, Utley, who played the harmonica, found himself with a lot of free time and roaming through a blues festival in Long Beach. That was six years ago.

“Some guys asked me over to jam and later asked me to join this band they were forming,” Utley said. “A few months later, I was playing B.B. Kings in Universal City.”

The former sales engineer was hooked. Sure, he’d played since he was 16, but now he had the time to fully explore his craft.

“I just kept meeting more musicians,” he said. “I knew no matter what happened in my life, I was always going to have this.

“I will always have the music to make me happy.”

Now Utley has a gig every third Saturday at BrewBakers in Huntington Beach with his band, The Sportin’ Woodies.

From blues to swing and straight through the rock of the ‘80s, very little goes uncovered by this quirky quintet, whose name started in jest.

“It sort of started as a joke, but it stuck,” he said. “You could hear Steve Miller Band and Timbuk 3 in the same stretch.

“We’re all over the map, though we don’t do much surf music.”

Along with Utley, the group includes bass player Jack Hammer, rhythm guitarist Gerry Springthorpe, Kevin Quinn on lead guitar and Jack Lillycrop on drums.

The group has formed quite a bond with the local brewhouse and bakery, where it has performed ever since Dennis Midden, the owner, moved locations from Main Street to its present spot on Heil Avenue and started looking for live entertainment.

At the time, the newly formed Woodies band was playing for Dennis Rodman’s club in Costa Mesa.

“The booking agent [at Rodman’s club] called us about BrewBakers,” Utley said. “We were the first ones available.”

It only took one gig to lock the brewery and the band together indefinitely.

“It was a match made in heaven, and we’ve been there ever since.”

Midden agreed about the chemistry between the band and the brew shop and bakery.

“The blues tends to go really well with the beer,” Midden said. “We’re really a casual environment.”

Guests often brew their own ales while the band plays, though you won’t find many just standing around — especially the band.

“One thing that people say [to] us is that “You guys look like you’re having such a good time,” Utley said. “That is the whole idea. You can’t just stand around up there.”

Utley and his band have become such a staple of the brew house as to have one of the beer recipes sporting their moniker, Sporting Woody’s — “it’s a strong ale, like the band,” Midden said.

“It’s a family kind of place,” Utley said. “Until it gets dark.”

That’s when the music begins. Get there while the tunes are blasting and the brews are bubbling.