Pop Music Reviews : . . . But Perkins Rocks the Standards, No Surprises

Considering the thousands of times that Carl Perkins has performed “Blue Suede Shoes” during a 35-year career that has traversed plenty of rough road, it is a wonder that those shoes aren’t thoroughly scuffed and soleless by now. But Monday at the Crazy Horse in Santa Ana, the 58-year-old son of Sun Records yelled and picked “Shoes” and his other seminal rockers with the same spark that helped set rock afire in the mid ‘50s.

In concert, Perkins remains a passionate advocate of the rockabilly music he helped birth. But while what he refers to as his “good-time music” is certainly that, it could still clearly be even more. Unlike his old Sun labelmates Jerry Lee Lewis (whose crazy streak compels innovation from him) or the late Roy Orbison (the depth of whose muse was replumbed on the recent “Mystery Girl” album), Perkins isn’t giving his talents many new challenges.

The 14-song Crazy Horse show featured a couple of worthy new efforts, notably “Let Me Tell You About Love,” the new Judds hit that Perkins co-authored, and a freshly-penned tribute to Orbison. But rather than performing the wilder and more personal material from his new “Born to Rock” album, or giving such primal classics as “Dixie Fried” or “Her Love Rubbed Off” their due, Perkins instead relied on the new album’s moribund title track and lively but generic versions of “The Saints,” “I’ve Got a Woman” and a medley of other artists’ rock standards.