Northern California is not exactly known for churning out country and bluegrass bands. Neither is Germany.

And yet, these two locations stand out in the history of the Weary Boys, which will be playing at 8 p.m. Monday at Zeno's, 100 W. College Ave.

"There's not too much opportunity to be a successful band in isolated northern California, in a logging and fishing area," guitarist and vocalist Darren Hoff said about the band's humble beginnings.

Hoff, along with guitarist and vocalist Mario Matteoli and fiddler Brian Salvi, started a band in the late 1990s about 300 miles north of San Francisco. The guys went their separate ways, until Hoff heard from Salvi a few years later.

"Brian e-mailed from Germany, 'Let's go to Texas and start a new band,' " Hoff said. "I figured that sounds like a good idea."

So in the fall of 2000, the three threw their instruments and some clothes in a car and drove to Austin, Texas.

"We all call Austin our home now," Salvi said.

The trio started playing as the Weary Boys outside a "hippie market," earning enough money for food and beer, and met bassist Darren Sluyter there when he threw his future bandmates a dollar, Hoff said. A year and a half ago (and one drummer later), the band imported current drummer Cary Ozanian from northern California. Since its inception, the band has released three albums and toured the country extensively.

"They're Texas swing with an electric guitar up front," Dave Staab, general manager of Zeno's, said. "They're a little more rock, with elements of bluegrass, folk, country. [They have] a nice regional flavor, coming from Texas. It's a musical hotbed down there."

This "regional flavor" is something Salvi attributes to do-it-yourself musical training.

"I have an old fiddle that my mother got me when I was a kid," Salvi said. "I pulled that out, carried it through to now, seven years later. That's how it was: Teach yourself how to play. That's sort of where we got our own sounds."

The Weary Boys have built up local followings in Austin and in the other cities they frequent. Even though next week's show is the band's first in Pennsylvania, Hoff said he is not intimidated by playing for an audience that has not heard of the Weary Boys.

"It's fun when the majority of the people haven't heard us," he said. "It's fun to get up there and prove yourself. That's the point of touring. If we could stay on the road damn near permanently, I'd be happy."

The Boys have high hopes for the success of the band, and see touring as a way to expand on their growing popularity.

"It's always getting better. In five years -- if we can still put up with each other -- hopefully we'll have a bus instead of a van," Salvi said, laughing. "If we could have that, I'm sure we'd all be a lot happier."