POP MUSIC REVIEW : GARY MORRIS’ GRAND OLD OPERA COUNTRY

It’s been said that you can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy. Hogwash.

Just look at singer Gary Morris, who left the field of country for three months last fall to take a leading role opposite Linda Ronstadt in Joseph Papp’s contemporary production of Puccini’s opera “La Boheme” in the New York Shakespeare Festival.

Now back on the country circuit, this former good ol’ boy from Fort Worth, Tex., showed up Monday at the Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana not only shorn of his thick black beard, but decked out in a tuxedo to boot.

In the first of his two sold-out shows, he even included a number from “La Boheme.” Exhibiting the control and range of a classically trained tenor, Morris proved with that song that he probably sings Puccini better than Pavarotti sings Hank Williams.

Unfortunately, during most of the 75-minute set, Morris and his five-man band treated just about everything else as a Wagnerian opus. “The Wind Beneath My Wings,” his 1983 hit that on record was a delicately rendered ode to unsung heroes, became an overblown exercise in bombast.

A more basic problem with Morris’ performance is that while he has an undeniably fine voice, he demonstrated more technique than emotion. And without that kind of heart-wrenching feeling, country music--like jazz that “ain’t got that swing”--don’t mean a thing.