HARMONY RULES FOR S.F. QUARTET ON THE WAY UP : THE FACTS.

Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Music Writer

What San Francisco's Big Blue Hearts have accomplished isn't so complicated. After all, writing and performing high-lonesome love songs with a timeless, classic feel that brings to mind the Everly Brothers shouldn't be so unusual.

But it is.

The quartet offers flawless three-part harmony, tasty twangy guitar, early-rock rhythms and ice-cool melodies that belong on every radio station in the free world.

However, just because the songs on the Big Blue Hearts' self-titled debut deserve to be heard doesn't mean radio programmers are allowing it to happen.

``It's going to be twice as hard for us, but we're ready to work for it,'' BBH singer-guitarist David Fisher said. ``People just need to take a chance. They hear a bit of a twang and they freak. They're misjudging what the public wants to hear. We're a pop band and a top-40 band. Just take a chance. We won't let you down.''

BBH's all-heartache-all-the-time sound took shape after Fisher, 26, moved from his native Virginia to the Bay Area in 1993 and began putting a band together.

``I started writing songs three years ago,'' the singer said. ``What happened was, I started writing and singing without any concept at all. In all honesty, anything I listened to in the past is far from what we sound like today. I knew of the Everlys, Ricky Nelson and Roy Orbison, but now I'm going back and getting into those artists. And I do hear the resemblance.''

Big Blue Hearts - which also includes Jamie Scott (guitar), Michael Anderson (bass) and Paul Zarich (drums) - open for Joe Walsh on Tuesday and Wednesday at the House of Blues in West Hollywood. The act has been called the offspring of Chris Isaak and the BoDeans.

``I didn't think about the sound,'' Fisher said. ``It felt good and we just went with it. We didn't try and make anything out of it.''

Fisher never tried to make something out of it, but others certainly did. It was less than a month after BBH's first gig that Geffen Records signed the band.

``Before, I was playing in alternative college-rock bands simply as a singer,'' Fisher explained. ``I was trying to develop my own style through other people, which was completely the wrong thing to do.''

Few original bands seem to come out of San Francisco these days because the city is overflowing with campy cover acts such as the popular Super Diamond, which plays all Neil Diamond tunes, and a host of tongue-in-cheek '70s disco outfits.

``There's some good music there, too, and some great places to play,'' Fisher said. ``But it's a big techno city, too. The dance scene has really caught on.''

It wasn't easy getting bookings at first. So, BBH developed an unusual method of securing gigs.

``We didn't have a tape,'' Zarich recalled. ``So, we'd go to a club on open mike night, go in as a full band - which no one ever does - and we'd always get an offer to come back and do a real show.''

Roberta Petersen, the ex-Geffen talent scout who signed the Big Blue Hearts, flew to San Francisco after she received a tip from a local club owner.

``I go by my gut, and seeing them the first time was like getting hit in the gut with a baseball bat - in a real good way,'' she said. ``It was so refreshing to hear the best elements of vintage rock 'n' roll in a '90s band. Everything was there - a great singer, great players and a songwriter who writes real melodies.''

After next week's gigs, BBH is heading to Moscow, Madrid and Paris for two-week club residencies in each city.

``We're looking forward to it,'' Fisher said. ``It's going to be a blast.''

Who: Big Blue Hearts, opening for Joe Walsh.

Where: House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tickets: $25.

Information: [phone].

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Photo

Photo: Now signed to Geffen, Big Blue Hearts - Jamie Scott, left, Paul Zarich, David Fisher and Michael Anderson - used open-mike nights to generate interesting and bookings in San Francisco clubs.