Date: Friday, May 24, 1991 Section: CURRENT Page: 5

By JOE TENNIS, New River Valley Bureau

BLACKSBURG

Craig Counts made a lot of noise early in his musical career - just like any other teen-ager with a guitar.

 In fact, Counts and a musician buddy made so much noise they were sent out of the house and down to Counts' father's toolshed to practice.

 They nicknamed that building "The Electric Woodshed."

 And when Counts, a 24-year-old McCoy resident, needed a name for his rock band a couple years later, his daddy's toolshed came back to him.

 These days, The Electric Woodshed plays what the former Virginia Tech student calls "Southern bluesy rock with a backbone. It's like lukewarm water or hard candy with cherries."

 The Electric Woodshed will play at Buddy's in Blacksburg June 6.

 They've been gigging in the New River Valley since 1986 with a playlist loaded with Allman Brothers Band music. They also throw in a couple of originals, said bass player Stu Salmon, 25, a Tech student from Flint Hill. "We're trying to push away from being a cover band."

 Members say there's too many odd stories surrounding their band to single out just one: "People are always jumping on stage. It's all become routine," Counts said.

 Sometimes a disoriented girl in the audience mistakes one of the members for a long-lost boyfriend, they said.

 At one show, an apparently deranged fan fell in love with Counts' girlfriend. "We had to drag him outside. And he kept saying, `Just kill me! I don't deserve to live!' " recalled Dunlap, 28, a math and science teacher at Blacksburg High School. Two of the band's members split their time to play with other groups, not an uncommon practice for up-and-coming musicians. Salmon thumps his bass strings with S.C.U.M. on occasion. And drummer Tim Taylor, 29, keeps time on the side with The Kind.

 Taylor, a 1988 Radford University graduate, is the Shed's only full-time musician. Other members call him "the colorful one."

 "If I had it to do all over again, I'd be a bass player," Taylor said. "There's just so many hassles of setting up drum equipment."

 Taylor said he would never leave one of his bands for the other: "I wouldn't make a choice. Both groups are so different. Being in two bands gives me the opportunity to be in different musical forms."

 The Kind's music is different from the Electric Woodshed because it has a psychedelic sound reminiscent of the 1960s, he said.

 "The best thing about this town is everybody communicates and helps each other out," Taylor said. "There's a real communal effort on the part of the musicians."

 Local musicians don't hesitate to loan equipment to a friend in need, he said.

 Dunlap and Counts share lead vocal duties. A fifth member, Jonathan Barker, 21, a Virginia Tech student from Staunton, plays keyboards.

 Perhaps the worst habit of the Electric Woodshed is showing up late for gigs, Taylor said. "People don't realize we do this every night. . . . But the band very rarely has a poor gig."

 They work with what they call a Hawkeye Pierce-Trapper John attitude, after the irrepressible "M*A*S*H" surgeons: Things seem only steps away from haywire until the action hits - then the show is played by pros.

 "We're not a pretty band," Dunlap said. "We thrive on spontaneity. We've got a go-for-broke kind of attitude. . . . It's not a search for fame or a profit venture. Our philosophy is `Play as good as you can.'"

Caption: PHOTO: JOE TENNIS. Craig Counts, Danny Dunlap,

 Stu Salmon and Jonathan Barker are the Electric Woodshed.