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For Steve Poltz, staying positive is the only way

The audience was virtual, but the music was real and a little rowdy when Steve Poltz performed two shows Thursday from the City Winery in the onetime San Diego fixture’s adopted hometown of Nashville. ■ Poltz, co-founder of the beloved Rugburns, continues to generate laughs with the airplay, notably on Sirius XM’S Outlaw Country station, of his “Quarantine Blues.” The parodic tune’s popularity has pleasantly surprised him. “I’ve had so many ‘non-hits’ not go the way I expected them to,” he said. “My favorite thing to say, and it’s from the film ‘Charlie Wilson’s War,’ is ‘We’ll see.’ ”

The enforced hiatus from touring has provided Poltz some unexpected benefits. “I always wanted to take a year off,” he said. “I’ve never been so healthy, because the life of the itinerant musician is not a life of health. You’re up late, you’re eating at Waffle House. You’re sitting at some counter at 2 a.m., talking to the cook. You’ve got to be up early to go be on the radio or to catch a flight. Then get your rental car and drive six, seven, eight hours in time for sound check, then do the whole thing again.”

Poltz has spent the last few months here in San Diego, and he plans to return to do some safely distanced house concerts, upon request. In the meantime, he’s spending time with his wife, Sharon, and writing songs and, in spite of the snark of “Quarantine Blues,” looking to brighter days.

“My positivity is one of my superpowers,” said Poltz, whose website touts a Dec. 2 gig from Space in Evanston, Ill. poltz.com