Songwriter Mark Carrillo Spins Bohemian Homilies : Music: The member of San Diego’s neo-folkie scene is winning over a diverse group of fans with his imagery-laden tunes.

SAN DIEGO — Oceanside-based singer/songwriter Mark Carrillo sank back into his easy chair, a bottle of beer hoisted in one hand and a cigarette burning in the other. A current of blue smoke curled around his face, framing a roguish grin that punctuates the humorous spin he puts on much of a conversation.

“When I got out of the service, I thought I had to get a job and have a career,” he said. “That’s what had been drummed into my head all of my life. So I was miserable for a long time, because that wasn’t really what I wanted to do. What I really wanted to do was be poor.”

It’s this sort of homespun bohemian homily that, in part, makes Carrillo an interesting and appealing artist.

Along with performers such as the Rugburns, Cindy Lee Berryhill, Dave Howard and Rod Frias, Carrillo, 36, is part of a growing neo-folkie scene in San Diego. His next local showcase is Friday night at the Spirit.

Carrillo has been playing to diverse crowds ranging from trendy patrons of coffeehouses to hard-core punks, and winning them over with his imagery-laden songs, innate likability and genuine enthusiasm for performing.

During a set, Carrillo stands bow-legged at the microphone, knees bobbing up and down to the beat of his music, his mischievous smile radiating from the stage. He sings tenderhearted ballads of troubled love, relates a burning anger with rare intelligence, or just rocks out with the best of ‘em. But always, his lyrics are at the forefront--evocative, poetic and true-to-life.

Glued to my seat without a word,

I’m watching the street where the gunshots were heard,

Don’t ask me for clues at the scene of the crime,

I said it’s standard blues in three-quarter time.

--from “Third Degree Burn”

Carrillo was born and raised in Northern California and moved to San Diego with his family at age 16. He began playing the guitar in the fifth grade, taking every opportunity to pull the instrument out at school and family get-togethers, serenading anyone who cared to listen.

By his own account, Carrillo was a confused and troubled teen-ager, one who had problems with the boring and often hypocritical existence of his suburban upbringing. At age 19, he joined the Army to get away and see the world.

“I was raised in a white, middle-class neighborhood which seemed to have built-in ethnic detectors,” he said. “I don’t know how the hell we got in there (Carrillo is Latino). I had problems maturing and dealing with things. I didn’t know how to be a man, so I joined the Army in 1976 to be all that I could be.

“I went head-first into living in a community situation with people right out of the Vietnam era,” he said. “Everyone--privates, NCOs--would pass around a community rig and get off on heroin. I was like, ‘Well, I’ve never seen this before!’ It was the greatest and the worst experience of my life.”

Carrillo was stationed in Germany, with close access to Amsterdam. On weekends, he would often take off to experience the sinful pleasures of the Babylonian metropolis, and to play for change in the streets.

“I’d set up in a market area with my guitar and do the old troubadour thing,” he said. “To my amazement, there’d always be a good crowd in no time at all.”

Honorably discharged from the Army in 1980, Carrillo moved back in with his parents. Still uncertain about his future, he attended college for a while and returned to playing for change--this time in Balboa Park. Carrillo began to get serious about his music, and soon enough realized that singing in the park wouldn’t get him anywhere in the music business. He experimented with a variety of bands and acoustic duos, none of which panned out into anything lasting.

Undaunted, Carrillo decided to strike out on his own as a solo acoustic act in 1988. If he couldn’t get anything meaningful going with a band, he’d just have to do it by himself.

“I started getting serious about playing,” he said. “I was getting more confidence in what I was doing. I started hitting the coffeehouses and open-mike nights, and I was surprised at how good the response was.”

With his newfound confidence, Carrillo’s writing began to excel and mature. He’s written more than 100 songs, about a third of which he feels comfortable performing in public. His material is largely culled from personal experiences.

“Usually, my songs are about me, or something I’ve seen that interested me or disgusted me or whatever,” he said. “I like to use a lot of metaphors rather than be too direct. I try to make it so different people can draw different conclusions from it.”

Carrillo has gotten serious about his music to the degree that he’s been mailing demo tapes out to record labels and management companies. It’s a long way from singing for spare change in the park to recording albums and touring the world, but Carrillo said he’s finally committed himself to his art after long and addling years of living without direction.

“I’m at home up there on the stage,” he said. “I love it. I’m a different person up there, man.”

Mark Carrillo will perform Friday night, along with Freak Show, San Quentin, C.O.I. and Gadfly, at the Spirit, 1130 Buenos Ave. in Bay Park. Carrillo plays at 8 p.m. Cover charge is $6.