After an extended hiatus, bygone one-name Monterey fave Alligator is back to play.

Once Wayne Cloukey’s parents learned that their musically-gifted 3-year-old boy could make good money by doing what came naturally, he became a regular at New Orleans honky-tonks.

Cloukey, who’s always gone by Alligator – after a gator crawled up on his parent’s front porch the night he was born – doesn’t recall being around kids his age, only hard-living adults and junkie musicians. At 5, he was drinking and smoking; by 13, Gator was a heroin addict.

Luckily, he was able to replace heroin’s stranglehold with healthier risks like pro boxing and bull-riding. And music.

“In the daytime, I’d get bounced around on a bull,” Gator says. “At night, I’d go to a club with a cast on my leg and play the blues.”

Gator moved to Monterey in 1990 and performed regularly at Sly McFly’s. Known for custom Western shirts (from his own clothing line, the Alligator Collection by Corazon Cowboy) and black hat lined with animal bones, Gator was embraced by the community. He was featured as one of the 20 most memorable local bands of the past 20 years in the Weekly’s 20th anniversary issue in 2008.

But aside from private parties here and there, it’s been nearly a decade since Gator played locally. He’s been spending most of his time in the Bay Area, where the work’s been more plentiful. He’s also been honing his one-man show, which he recently took up through Northern California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Los Angeles. For Gator, one-man show means one-man operation: He also drives and books all the shows himself.

“Booking agents don’t like me because you can’t pigeonhole Alligator,” he says. “All the rules go out the door. Don’t call me a blues man. I recorded the blues in 1952, but I play country, Cajun, zydeco, reggae, folk, rock, swamp rock and everything else. I tell people I’m an American musician and I play Alligator music.”

On stage, the 72-year-old Gator jumps instruments as much as he jumps genres.

“I may go from fiddle to Cajun accordion to mandolin to whatever the hell else I want to do,” he says. “Don’t come expecting to hear one style because I’m going to do whatever the hell I want.”

Set lists are also leap around, from the likes of Freddy Fender’s “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” to a zydeco take on “Corrina, Corrina” to a funkedafied rendition of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me.”

Tonight, Gator’s Monterey return goes down at Planet Gemini.

“It’s a chance for Monterey to catch Alligator again,” he says. “If it goes well, I want to make it a once-a-month thing.”

ALLIGATOR plays at 9pm Thursday, July 10. Planet Gemini, 2010 N. Fremont St., Monterey. $5. 373-1449.