Sitting by a brick campfire pit on his Big Sur ranch, Beach Boys co-founder and Big Sur resident Al Jardine utters a big – but valid – statement about his first solo studio album, A Postcard From California. “It would be great if we [the Beach Boys] had some new material for the public,” he says as Steller’s jays squawk in the background. “So my album is really the Beach Boys album that should have been made, the way I see it.”

With Jardine describing the current relationship between the remaining band members as “complicated,” Postcard will have to be the closest thing to a new Beach Boys release. Jardine will debut songs from the album this Friday night at the Henry Miller Library as part of his first-ever Big Sur show.

One treat for Beach Boys fans on Postcard, which is available digitally through iTunes and Amazon, is Jardine’s “Don’t Fight the Sea,” which features vocal contributions from Beach Boys Jardine, Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston and the late Carl Wilson. Each recorded their parts in different places at different times.

“Carl Wilson, before he died, was able to do a beautiful bridge in the center of the doldrums,” Jardine says.

The rest of the album includes appearances by a dream team of musicians and entertainers including Neil Young, Steve Miller, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea and even Alec Baldwin on a cheesy voiceover that approaches parody. It also revisits some Beach Boys compositions and has new numbers that employ the band’s classic pop sound. On a remake of “Help Me, Rhonda,” Jardine, Steve Miller of the Steve Miller Band, harmonica player Norton Buffalo and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers transform the 1965 hit into a blues rock number. “California Feelin’” is an unearthed gem that Brian Wilson wrote for the Beach Boys, but never recorded with the legendary group. It begins as a piano ballad before those rich Beach Boys-style backing vocals wash over certain words.

An update of the underrated 1973 track “California Saga” finds Jardine trading lead vocals with Neil Young while David Crosby and Stephen Stills add backing.

According to Jardine, Young was a particularly elusive musician to secure for the project. “David [Crosby] was shocked when he heard Neil’s voice on there,” Jardine says. “He was genuinely amazed.”

Though the album is titled A Postcard From California, it could almost be called A Love Letter to Big Sur, especially after hearing the tracks “A California Saga” and “Looking Down the Coast.” “A California Saga” mentions longtime Big Sur resident Penny Vieregge and includes the lines: “Have you ever been north of Morro Bay?/ The South Coast plows the sea/ And the people there are of the breed/ They don’t need electricity.”

As Jardine sits by the fire pit and strums “Looking Down the Coast” on an acoustic guitar, he attempts the song’s transition from a flamenco guitar section about the early Spanish explorers to a section about passing sights like Hurricane Point and the Little Sur River while traveling down Big Sur’s Highway 1. “That’s my drive home from town,” he notes.

Vist the Monterey County Weekly's photo blog for more photos and video from visiting Al Jardine.

Jardine says he moved to Big Sur from Los Angeles in 1973 after motoring through the area in the mid ’60s. “It’s just magical,” he says. “Also, getting out of the rat race in L.A. was enough reason to [move here]. I mean I was really looking for a way to escape the smog and the congestion down there, because it was pretty intense.”

Throughout Postcard, musicians from the area he fell in love with perform alongside rock legends. “Drivin’” finds local guitarist Mike Lent and local harmonica player Johnnie Mirani, who performed in the Monterey ’80s act Young Presidents, adding their talents to a song which has Jardine, Brian Wilson and America’s Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell on lead vocals.

One song Jardine is particularly proud of is “San Simeon,” a pop nugget as smooth as South Coast jade thanks to a cushion of vocals on the chorus. “That’s my favorite of all of them,” he says. “It knocks me out. I get high listening to it.”

While the new Beach Boys recording looks unlikely at this point, Jardine does say there are plans to reunite with his remaining bandmates to celebrate the Beach Boys’ 50th anniversary next year. “We are still debating how that might work,” he says. “We’ve agreed to do five free concerts. We don’t know where.”

But those five shows look like all that Beach Boys fans can hope for at this point. “It’s complicated,” Jardine reiterates as his dog Porkchop sniffs around his legs. “It’s complicated with so many managers, lawyers and candlestick makers. It’s kind of like a crazy little nursery rhyme really.”

There’s an interesting twist on that tale, though: Since the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer says he invited everyone who played on A Postcard From California to the Henry Miller Library show, it’s possible that first Beach Boys show could be part of Jardine’s hometown debut after all.

AL JARDINE and a TBD special-guest backing band play at 7:30pm Friday, Oct. 8, at Henry Miller Library, located a quarter mile south of Nepenthe Restaurant on Highway 1, Big Sur. $35 plus fees. 667-2574.