POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Small Crowd Gets One From Wynette’s Heart

If Tammy Wynette literally had wanted to stand by her fans, she could have asked the sparse gathering at Michael’s Supper Club in Dana Point to join her on the stage Thursday night and there would have been room to spare.

Instead, Wynette stood by her fans in a figurative sense and treated the 50 or so people who turned out for her early show to an expertly played, beautifully sung collection of old favorites (Wynette closes her three-night stand tonight).

Wynette’s response to the customer shortage was as direct and sincere as the emotions she expresses in her classic repertoire. (Classic is an overused word that should always be mistrusted unless you’re talking about Romans and Greeks. But Wynette is one Nashvillean for whom it is apt.)

“I wish the night was totally packed, but since it’s not, it doesn’t matter to me,” she told the audience during the set’s first pause. “We’ll just do the same show we’d have done otherwise.”

Wynette and her fine nine-member ensemble of musicians and backup singers went on to share plenty of smiles and appeared to have a great time while avoiding the tendency some acts have on a slow night to lose concentration and let the show get a bit unsprung. They were rewarded with warm applause and lively cheers that made what could have been an embarrassingly dead evening a nicely intimate one.

The only real drawback to Wynette’s show was that parts of it were too slick. There were touches of Las Vegas gimmickry: two costume changes, show-bizzy introductory fanfare based on “Stand By Your Man” and two medleys--one featuring some of Wynette’s greatest hits and the other stringing together country gospel standards.

There was also a shovelful of cornball humor from the seven-man band. And there were no surprises in the song selection for the 65-minute show, nor any new interpretations of familiar numbers.

But the Vegas trappings were vestigial rather than intrinsic to the show. The joking around produced some genuine funniness in a cutting contest between Wynette’s fiddler and banjo player, and the medleys allowed enough space for most of the songs to come to life.

Wynette began shakily with a too-breezy, low-energy version of “My Man (Understands).” But she quickly righted the show with lively sass on “Another Chance.”

Wynette, who is 46, has been hampered by illnesses during the ‘80s. They may have left her a bit thinner than she ought to be, but her voice hasn’t been diminished. She was especially strong on ballads of the hurtin’ kind, aching convincingly on “ ‘Til I Can Make It on My Own,” “Bedtime Story” and “Talking to Myself,” one of three songs she sang from her most recent album, the tradition-slanted “Higher Ground.”

For Wynette, “Stand By Your Man” isn’t just a signature song but a sort of built-in barometer that can give a quick reading on the state of her vocal powers.

There is no more soaring, ferociously emotional song in the English language. Backed by just-like-the-record accompaniment, she made it soar and sear once again.

Tammy Wynette plays tonight at 8 and 10:30 at Michael’s Supper Club, 24399 Dana Drive, Dana Point. Information: (714) 493-8100.