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ATTLEBORO - But you can't keep a good band down. And Tulsa Queen was a very good band, maybe the area's best ever in its genre - though the genre is a tough one to pin down.

"Let's just say it's not your daddy's country," Hall says of the Tulsa Queen repertoire, which leans into rockabilly and country rock, most of it tinged with influences from the blues.

Attleboro's a far piece from Nashville, but we suspect most Music City performers would be happy to be backed by the Tulsa Queen unit.

Besides North Attleboro's Hall, an accomplished guitarist and a vocalist compared favorably with Delbert McClinton, the reunited band includes pedal steel and slide guitar wizard Kerry Anderson, formerly of Attleboro, and drummer Dean Winslow of Plainville, all of whom were members of the original Tulsa Queen formed in 1979. On lead guitar is Tim Lindsey of Attleboro, well known for his more recent work with the Blue FOs. Lindsey was a member of a Tulsa Queen unit formed in the 1980s. Holding up the bottom is a new member, Steve Morawiec of Pawtucket, on upright and electric bass.

"It all fell together as a string band," says Hall. Besides Hall, Anderson, Winslow and Lindsey have all been lead singers in area bands. Not surprisingly, harmony singing is a signature of most Tulsa Queen numbers.

The comeback trail begins Friday, March 7, at Corinne's, a Pawtucket nightclub on the Attleboro line, just off Route 1A. Mike Cavanaugh of the band Tree Line will open with a solo set. Tulsa Queen will perform two one-hour sets of original material and covers of numbers by the Kentucky Headhunters, the Mavericks, Delbert McClinton, Webb Pierce, Otis Redding and the Platters. Harmonica player Killer Kane is expected to sit in on "What's the Matter Now?" which Hall vocalized on the Blue FOs album "Jewel City Blues."

Hall broke into the music business in 1969 as a member, along with Winslow, of Eighth Day, which evolved into the Hickory Wind band. Though still only in his 20s, he was already a 10-year veteran as a professional musician in 1979 when he decided, "I want to go to Nashville."

He pulled the passenger's seat out of his MG roadster, stuck in his guitar and headed off on what turned into a whirlwind. He played at the famed Golden Guitar Lounge, met "Whole Lotta Shakin'" writer James "Roy" Hall, who became his agent, signed a contract with Jud records, and formed Tulsa Queen.

Over the next dozen years Hall collected a guitar case-ful of stories. He saw Nashville's best players compete in "guitar pulls." He joined them in jams at the side of Webb Pierce's guitar-shaped swimming pool and at Ernest Tubb's Music Shop. He opened for Ricky Nelson at the Tennessee State Fair - backed by five session musicians he met for the first time 45 minutes before the show. There were tours of Texas, tours back to New England, tours back to Nashville, and points in between.

With tours came burnout. Hall hung it up in 1991, when he took a job with a startup food service corporation that had heavy travel demands, and devoted himself to job and family. More recently, he started his own company, Board Tech, and his family is grown to the point where 21-year-old Jesse, one of his three sons, is now part of his own grunge band, Dragged Under. When Lindsey called looking to get Hall to play out on the occasional gig, he was receptive. Hall's interest in songwriting was reawakened while he got the rust off his old chops. One thing led to another and Tulsa Queen was reunited.

"I never quit," says Hall. "I just took a 17-year vacation."