Five years ago, with the release of the Reigning Sound's Too Much Guitar album, Greg Cartwright was poised on the cusp of something big.

The critically hailed LP seemed to be pushing Cartwright -- who'd labored in the garage rock underground for years -- and his songs into the mainstream.

The only problem? It took Cartwright half a decade to release a follow-up. "I probably should have put out another record right away," says Cartwright, with a chuckle. "But my brain doesn't work that way, much to the chagrin of my record label and everybody else."

Of course there were legitimate reasons for the gap between records: Cartwright left his native Memphis for Asheville, N.C., where he resettled his family and began working a day job as an electrician, forcing him to reform the band basically from scratch.

In the interim, Cartwright did put out the Reigning Sound rarities collection Home for Orphans, and worked on a number of outside projects, writing and producing songs for Mary Weiss of Shangri-Las fame, and up-and-coming acts like the Goodnight Loving and the Ettes.

Finally, Cartwright and the Reigning Sound -- which now includes keyboardist Dave Amels, bassist David Gay, and drummer Lance Willie -- are back, and touring in support of the group's new album Love and Curses. They will perform at the Hi-Tone Café on Saturday.

For those who discovered Reigning Sound through the decidedly hard-rocking Too Much Guitar, Love and Curses will come as a kind of surprise, as it's a far different album, stocked with a heavy mix of pop ballads, country weepers, even the odd sea shanty.

"I just like to be free to move around as I choose," says Cartwright. "That's the most important thing for me in making music, is to never feel like I have to make the same record twice. That's what keeps things interesting. And I think my fans understand that."

For Cartwright -- a connoisseur of old records and a consummate interpreter of cover songs -- the process of bringing new influences into his own songwriting has been a lifelong pursuit.

"When you're young, you start off wanting to be the Beatles, and then maybe want to sound like this Indian thing you heard, or you wanna pull in some blues in this one part, and maybe be country over here," he says. "At the same time, you want to feel like you're filtering those influences through you, rather than filtering yourself through those influences."

Cartwright has been finding new sources of inspiration since he was a kid. As a child living in Frayser, he was raised in a musical environment. "My dad was a big record fiend," says Cartwright. "My uncles were too."

But it was his paternal grandmother who really put Cartwright on his crate-digging path. "She loved to go to thrift stores, loved to go to yard sales and so that's what we did all summer. Which eventually led me to buy all these records," he says. "She influenced every aspect of my life, from what kind of records I listen to down to how I got the records."

Before he was even out of short pants, Cartwright was writing lyrics. "I was going through some stuff at my parents' house recently, and I found some poetry I had written when I was like 10 or 11, and it was pretty evolved," he says. "They were basically songs, but I didn't play an instrument at the time. Then, maybe two or three years later, I picked up the guitar and married these two things."

As a teen, Cartwright started playing in neighborhood punk and rock bands, but his grades were failing. His father came to him with an offer. "He said, 'I'll support you and give you the money to do whatever you need -- to go to trade school or whatever. You just tell me what you want to do.' I said 'Well, I really want to be a musician.' And of course, his answer was 'Anything but that,' " recalls Cartwright.

"Which was funny because my dad was such a music fan. But he knew musicians growing up and people in bands, and he knew that most of them don't make it. He was trying to spare me some misery. But it was too late. The course was already set."

Cartwright soon moved to Midtown and for the next 15 years played, recorded and toured with a succession of what would become nationally and internationally influential garage and trash rock bands, including the Compulsive Gamblers and Oblivians.

This past summer, Cartwright reunited both bands onstage, with the Oblivians -- which include Goner Records co-owner Eric Friedl and Memphis roots rocker Jack Yarber -- undertaking a highly successful European tour with fellow lo-fi legends, Detroit's The Gories.

For Cartwright, the experience of playing with the Oblivians again was a lesson in chemistry. "The thing that I've always liked about music was the dynamic between you and the other people in the band and how that funny mixture of individuals makes a certain sound," he says. "I mean, I can play those same songs with two people other than Eric and Jack and it's just not the same.

Despite the success of the Oblivians reunion, Cartwright doesn't expect the band to record again.

For now, he's busy with the Reigning Sound and touring in support of Love and Curses, though his family -- he has two boys in high school and middle school in Memphis and a 6-year-old daughter in Asheville -- and work obligations make it difficult.

"My family life doesn't allow for long tours; my body doesn't allow for it either," says Cartwright. "I can't really be gone for any more than two weeks at a time. Time moves so fast as you get older and you have kids, and you don't want to miss them growing up."

One thing Cartwright does promise, however, is that the wait between Reigning Sound records won't be as epic this time around.

"I don't see any reason for a lag or delay with the next one. I feel really strong about the band right now, like we could go cut a record tomorrow and it would better than this one," says Cartwright. "I feel like the machine is finally turning again."

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Reigning Sound with Spider Bags, and The Limes

Saturday at the Hi-Tone Café, 1913 Poplar Ave. Doors open at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 and available at hitonememphis.com. For more information, call 278-8663.

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