Paul Eddy is crazy about guitars.

A longtime musician, he’s been over the moon for Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters ever since the fateful day 20 years ago when he walked into an Austin, Texas, music shop.

“I bought, like, a cheap Telecaster copy and just fell in love with it,” he said over coffee at Strictly Organic in Bend Monday morning. “And then I got bit by the guitar bug, and ever since I’ve just been guitar crazy.”

If you’re partial to the retro aesthetic of Deke Dickerson, the twangy guitar of certain Chris Isaak tunes or the spooky desert noir of Calexico, let Central Oregon’s own Long Tall Eddy take you down that dusty highway where country and western, rockabilly, surf guitar and rock ‘n’ roll collide.

The trio has two Bend gigs this week. The first is tonight at Kelly D’s, followed by an opening slot for roots-rock act Avery James and the Hillandales on Thursday at Volcanic Theatre Pub (see “If you go” for details).

Long Tall Eddy is singer, songwriter and guitarist Eddy backed by the father-son rhythm section of Karl Lindgren on drums and Tim Lindgren on upright bass. Eddy likewise hails from a musical family; when his mom lived in Memphis, Tenn., she sang with big bands and on the radio.

“She’s a great singer,” Eddy said.

Dad sang opera and worked as dean of students at Clark College in Vancouver, Wash., where Eddy was born and raised.

Eddy started playing piano at age 5 and can also play bass and drums. In 1991, at age 31, he moved to Austin, where, a few years later, he walked into the aforementioned shop and left a changed musician, his acoustic guitar strumming giving way to a Strat-powered proclivity for twang.

In 2006, Eddy and his wife, Sarah, moved to a 10-acre plot near Prineville Reservoir. “We built a few things and had gotten to a point where we were about to build the house, and we decided to bail. We weren’t sure if (off-grid living) was really our cup of tea,” Eddy said.

So in 2009, they moved back to Austin for three years. Among other gigging during his first go-round in Bend, he drummed in longtime local bar band The Substitutes.

“Then I found them a real drummer, and I switched over to guitar. And then we moved to Texas,” Eddy said. “I’ve played pretty much every (instrument) that’s in a rock band. Now it’s all kind of focused on guitar.”

During his second stint in Texas, Eddy began forgoing picks, opting to play fingerstyle guitar instead.

“I think it’s just because I kept dropping picks and could never find one,” he said.

When he plays acoustic guitar, he’ll strum with a pick. “I play like (it’s) the drums,” he said. “I hit it really hard when I’m strumming.” But he brings a much lighter touch to his electric guitar playing. Fingerstyle “opens up a whole new set of licks,” he said.

“I’m a die-hard fingerstyle fan now. It’s my sound.”

That signature guitar sound, along with hand claps and other winsome stuff rock music was founded on, are all over Eddy’s 2010 CD, “Long Tall Eddy,” his third recording. He recorded all of the parts himself.

“It kind of has a different sound than the other two I’ve done. This has a lot more stripped-down sound,” he said. “I focused exclusively on the Fender Stratocaster. There’s not an acoustic track on this thing.”

“Long Tall Eddy” was originally just the album title for a Paul Eddy album. It became the name of his band.

“My wife said, ‘That’d be a good name for a band, too,’” he said.

In Texas, Eddy, who has a masters in music composition, worked as a choir director at a couple of public schools. He and his wife returned to Central Oregon in June of 2012.

“It just kept pecking away at us, our property and the idea of living off-grid, a healthier life and fewer bills and all that. Probably the biggest thing was my wife saying, ‘You know what? If we can live cheaply off-grid, you can just be a musician,’” Eddy said.

“I was like, ‘Sold,’” he continued. “We are committed to finishing the house now.”

Thanks to frequent gigging and self-promotion through social media, Eddy is now making a go of earning a living through his music.

But wait. During the first three years in Central Oregon, Eddy had a generator for electricity. But now, “It’s all off-grid. No power,” he said.

What’s an electric guitar player do without power?

“(Bend guitar shop) Sunday Guitars gave me a real sweet deal on this little (Vox) amPlug,” a palm-sized headphone amp, he said. “It plugs into your guitar, and you just plug headphones into it, so it sounds very much like an amp. I use that all the time to rehearse.”

If you go

What: Long Tall Eddy

Details:

• 7:30 tonight; free; Kelly D’s, 1012 S.E. Cleveland Ave., Bend; 541-389-5625

• 9 p.m. Thursday, doors open 8 p.m.; free; Volcanic Theatre Pub, 70 S.W. Century Drive, Bend; www.volcanictheatrepub.com

Contact: www.reverbnation.com/longtalleddy or www.longtalleddy.weebly.com