POP MUSIC REVIEW : Emmylou a Nearly Perfect Honky-Tonk Woman

Even cowgirls get the blues, but at least the late-night, honky-tonk life keeps them off the freeways at rush hour--usually.

Emmylou Harris has been traveling one road or another ever since she started touring in 1973 with her mentor, Gram Parsons, the first of the country rockers. But Saturday night she sweetly told the early-show crowd at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano that “I had an experience today that was new to me. I spent three hours today trying to get down here from the Valley.”

Appearing no worse for the experience, Harris said it felt good to be playing in a honky-tonk. Although the Coach House’s lack of a dance floor disqualifies it on technical grounds, the muggy air in the sold-out room had the proper sultry quality. Harris herself had the right look: In her denim jacket and tight stretch pants, she looked dressed for a night of honky-tonkin’ on the rough side of town.

Most of all, honky-tonks are for forgetting life’s little adversities, such as hot weather and traffic jams, and concentrating on the big ones, such as having your heart broken. Of course, after allowing for a seemly spillage of tears in beer, the honky-tonk also is the place to say “aw, what the heck” (or some more fitting epithet) and start having fun again.

In a varied, briskly paced set that was expertly played and wonderfully sung, Harris and her Hot Band, who will also play two sold-out shows at the Crazy Horse in Santa Ana on Tuesday, made all the right honky-tonk moves. Playing 19 songs in 70 minutes, Harris gave a nearly full accounting of her first-class talent.

There were lovely lamentations on such sad ballads as “Beneath Still Waters,” “Miss the Mississippi” and “Sweet Dreams.” In these, Harris conveyed fragility and hurt with a classic country catch-in-the-voice, yet her full-bodied tone and control spoke of the strength to persevere and overcome troubles.

No matter how deep her plaint, Harris avoided the excesses that make some balladeers sound contrived. Unlike Linda Ronstadt--her sidekick, along with Dolly Parton, on the hit “Trio” album--Harris doesn’t fall into the trap of sometimes making a show of her voice. If the song is good enough--and Harris’s selection contained no duds--a sensitive reading should be enough to showcase a singer’s capabilities. Without grandstanding, Harris got in her share of impressive quavers and big, sustained-note climaxes. At 41, she shows no sign of decline.

There were rocking numbers interspersed through a well-sequenced show that never bogged down with a string of too-similar tunes. Harris and her seven-man band peaked for a rousing home stretch that included Chuck Berry’s “C’est La Vie” and, for a final encore, Parsons’ “Ooh Las Vegas.”

For variety, Harris included a countrified pop standard, Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer,” a playful swing number, “How High the Moon,” and a fast-paced, accordion-driven Cajun tune, “Lacassine Special,” that went over particularly well with her receptive audience.

She also yielded the stage for one song, bopping in the wings while her longtime rhythm guitarist, Barry Tashian (formerly of the Remains, the Boston garage-rock band that toured with the Beatles in 1966), sang a robust “Party Doll” with his wife, Holly. Harris then displayed yet another of her strengths--harmony singing--by joining the Tashians on “Favorite Memory.”

The Hot Band’s two main soloists--guitarist Frank Reckard and pedal steel player Steve Fishell--both made good impressions with concise leads and fills, and pianist Don Johnson displayed a fine, sensitive touch on the ballads. Mandolins, played by three different band members, lent a homey, acoustic touch to several songs.

The only facet of Harris’s music left uncovered was the white gospel sound to which she devoted all of her last album, “Angel Band.” Maybe she was just observing a propriety. Honky-tonks are good for a lot of things, but praying isn’t one of them.

Emmylou Harris will play at 7 and 10 p.m. Tuesday at the Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana. Tickets: SOLD OUT. Information: (714) 549-1512.