It's hardly a surprise that Dale Anderson's entree into the scene was the British invasion of the '60s.

A baby boomer with a gift for music, Anderson heard the same siren call that snared many of his generation, when the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were turning kids raised on bland '50s sit-coms into bona fide rock and rollers.

Anderson played in bands in high school and college, ultimately hooking up with Christian country rock band Hosanna. Then the pressures of ordinary life took over and Anderson's vagabond musician's existence gave way to steady work and responsibility.

"I didn't play for a long time," said Anderson. "I was raising kids and coaching sports and working overtime, and I didn't play again until I was in my 40s. I went to an open mic when I was 42. It was probably 1992 when I went to the Songwriters Showcase, which was a big open mic in Green Bay."

Anderson's big renaissance, however, came from a mix of likely and unlikely sources.

"It started with Jim-Dog," said Anderson. "He was a good musical friend in Chicago. He was my daughter's boyfriend and I was just barely touching blues music. It was not something I did. I used to listen to the Beatles and the Stones, and Jim-Dog made a tape for me a few years ago called 'Blues for Dale A.' He was 26 years old and I was in my 40s, and this kid taught me about this stuff."

The hook for Anderson was that many of these songs were original blues compositions that had been rerecorded by some of his rock 'n' roll heroes of the '60s and '70s -- songs he had grown up listening to.

"These were original old songs by Muddy Waters and Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Johnson and others that had been covered by modern artists such as the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin," said Anderson. "That's what shocked me."

That tape, says Anderson, was a catalyst for his current musical incarnation, as was a budding interest in old-style resonator guitars.

"Right from then I just fell in love with Muddy Waters, and I heard the Robert Johnson songs that many people have covered, and after Jim-Dog made me that tape it was just about the same time I was reading in the magazines about these resonator guitars, and I saw pictures of a chrome guitar and I played one in the store, and in a matter of months I had a Dobro California Girl in my hand."

Resonator guitars, of which Dobros are one variation, are built with a metal cone that amplifies the vibrations of the strings like a wood body does in a standard guitar. The resonator guitar was invented in the 1920s to compete with horns and other loud instruments that were popular at the time, and was especially targeted toward Hawaiian players.

"They were really popular for quite a time until the war," said Anderson. "During World War II they just wouldn't let people have metal for stuff like that. And of course the amplifier came out around that time and there was just no call for them."

The guitar made a resurgence after a resonator was pictured on the Dire Straits album Brothers in Arms.

Andersonowns both the wooden Dobro variety of resonator guitar and the original metal resonator first manufactured by National Stringed Instrument Corp. They're ideal, says Anderson, for the blues music he currently favors.

"It's got that rattly metallic blues kind of sound, and the original ones, the first metal ones for Hawaiian guitar, the blues players stuck with them."

While Andersonchanged his musical tack after discovering the blues a few years ago, he retains an eclectic mix of folk, rock and rockabilly. Included in his repertoire are his own compositions, as well as music from Lyle Lovett, The Beatles, the Bodeans, John Cougar Mellencamp, Buddy Holly, Elvis, Eric Clapton and the Hollies. Many of his own songs feature fingerstyle guitar.

"My first recording, the title is Victoria Smiles. I had made that cassette in '97. It was all quiet fingerstyle stuff, and there was one vocal song on there. Then I did Parkridge Avenue in '99, which really showed that eclectic style of stuff. It's got fingerstyle, it's got blues, it's got the folk rock songs I wrote."

Anderson's recordings are available at his gigs, as well as Henri's in Green Bay. He has played throughout the state, but mostly finds work in the Green Bay area, including at a'Bravo Cafe, Attic Coffee and Books, and Kavarna, as well as A's Restaurant and Music Cafe in De Pere. He occasionally plays in the Fox Valley, and will be at Kaukauna Coffee and Tea on March 16.

For a complete schedule of Anderson's dates, consult Scene Club Calendar, or go to idobro.com.