A SINGER WHO IS NOT JUST GOING ALONG FOR ‘RIDE’

There are several haunting images in Robert Altman’s “Fool for Love,” the film version of Sam Shepard’s play about a complicated relationship whose difficulties extend far beyond the normal ones implied by the title.

Those images include the neon glow of the El Royale Motel sign that offers warmth and companionship by the side of a road that doesn’t seem headed anywhere--at least not for the film’s characters.

And there’s Shepard’s tale itself--about people whose search for understanding seems helplessly interlocked, though they can’t seem to figure out whether their future would be best served by joining together or breaking apart.

There’s also a third image: a song called “Let’s Ride.”

As a wary Kim Basinger watches Shepard drive slowly into view, the anxious, sensual tone of both the singer’s voice and the song’s lyrics sets up perfectly the bittersweet, high-voltage encounter that is to follow.

The identity of the singer will be as much of a mystery as Shepard’s characters themselves. There are traces in the voice of the sexy spunk of Tanya Tucker, the bluesy, honky-tonk shadings of Lacy J. Dalton and the troubled, confessional tone of Tammy Wynette--yet the voice doesn’t sound exactly like any of them.

So who is this singer-songwriter whose music makes the “Fool for Love” sound-track album one of the most promising country-music debuts in years?

Her name is Sandy Rogers--and the fact that the media are going to love about her is that she’s Sam Shepard’s sister.

“You’re interested in talking about the music?” Rogers asked good-naturedly at the start of a recent phone conversation. “Well, I’m glad of that. Everybody else who I’ve been interviewed by just wants to learn about Sam.”

Sam Shepard, of course, is an intriguing subject: the reclusive, award-winning playwright who also has become a movie star and lives with actress Jessica Lange. (Shepard dropped the family name, Rogers, years ago.)

But Sandy Rogers, 37, is also a talent.

Though she began pursuing her musical dreams in the mid-’70s, she had pretty much given up on a career in recent years, devoting most of her time to overseeing her brother’s 10-acre ranch near Santa Rosa, north of San Francisco.

“When I was young, my dad used to play a lot of jazz and stuff from the ‘40s . . . Peggy Lee, Glenn Miller, the Dorsey Brothers, some Dixieland,” Rogers recalled. “But I didn’t really get into music until after college (she has a psychology degree from UC Davis).

“I was married, had a kid and got divorced. . . . and I was at a point where I was just sitting up there in Davis with nothing to do. I finally got a piano and started fooling around with music.”

A fan in those days of people like Dolly Parton and especially Hank Williams, Rogers gravitated toward country music. She started performing around 1975, singing a few of her own tunes, but mostly songs by country stars like Williams and Willie Nelson.

She was in and out of bands over the next few years, making an occasional demo record but never landing a contact. During that period, her style broadened to include rock, blues and some experimental theater exercises.

“The fact that I had gradually stopped making music was pulling at me for the last couple of years,” Rogers said. “I had always been this real idealistic person, advising people that if they are any good at all they should never quit--and here I had quit. Every once in a while, I’d sit at the piano or pick at the guitar, but I was just doubly frustrated because I was out of (practice).”

Out of the blue last April, Shepard phoned and asked Rogers to write a couple of songs for the movie. “Sam said (director) Altman was considering some music for the film, but Sam didn’t care for it,” she recalled. “He told me, ‘Just write a couple of country tunes, whatever you want . . . if you get stuck, try to write a song from each character’s point of view.’ ”

Rogers wrote three songs over the next couple of days, including “Let’s Ride.” She sent a tape of them to her brother, who forwarded them to Altman. “Sam said he liked the songs a lot, but made it clear that the decision to use them was strictly up to Altman,” she continued.

Altman brought the singer-songwriter to Santa Fe, N. M., where the film was being shot, and asked her to write the whole score. The other songs on the album range from playful to melancholy reflections on elusive love. The individualism and personality in the best of the songs and in Rogers’ singing gives the album a strong, winning sense of identity.

Though MCA Records released the sound-track LP, Rogers still doesn’t have a solo recording deal. She plans to go to Nashville soon to make another demo to prove there is more to this Rogers than just strong bloodlines.

When she submitted her first demo tape to Los Angeles record companies in the 1980s, she didn’t tell anyone that she was Shepard’s sister. “You don’t want someone signing you for the wrong reason,” she said flatly.

“Besides,” she added with a laugh, “it probably wouldn’t have made any difference in those days. Not all that many people knew who Sam was. He wasn’t this (household name) until he started hitting the movie screen.”

She knows now, however, that his name means something.

Rogers’ manager Jane Friedman, who once guided the career of rock singer-poet Patti Smith, tried to line up a club appearance for Rogers when she was in New York recently for the opening of “Fool for Love.”

One club owner was apparently eager to book Rogers--if the manager could guarantee that Shepard would make an appearance. Rogers declined the offer.