POP MUSIC REVIEW : Perkins Still a Top Picker ‘and Having Fun in California’

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

Looking trim and fit, and backed by a quartet featuring his two sons, Perkins got right down to business with an antic version of Muddy Waters’ signature tune, “I’ve Got My Mojo Working,” followed by his own “Bopping the Blues.” Though even Perkins’ hairpiece has turned gray, he still sang and snapped off the guitar licks to “Matchbox” and “Honey Don’t” with a child’s happy grin on his face. At one point in the proceedings, he declared, “58 with a bullet, I am! And having fun in California! Can you beat that with a snake?”

Perkins’ hot guitar work on his ‘50s Sun sides launched more than a few guitarists, including George Harrison, into rock. In a reprise of a show-stopping instrumental from his “A Rockabilly Session” cable special of a few years back, Perkins showed that he still hasn’t lost his touch for the instrument. Explaining how he and the other “boys” down in Memphis didn’t know anything about tape echo when Les Paul introduced it on records in the ‘50s, he took his black, O.C.-made G&L; guitar (a gift to him from electric guitar inventor Leo Fender) and replicated the echo’s shimmering, cascading effects using only some dazzling finger-picking.

At such moments, Perkins remains a passionate advocate of the rockabilly style 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 label-mates Jerry Lee Lewis (whose crazy streak compels innovation from him) or the late Roy Orbison (who had a generation of inspired younger fans to remind him of the depth of his muse on the “Mystery Girl” album), Perkins isn’t giving his talents many new challenges.

The 14-song show featured a couple of worthy new efforts, notably “Let Me Tell You About Love,” the new Judds hit which Perkins co-authored, and a freshly penned tribute to Roy Orbison. But rather than performing the wilder and more personal material on his new “Born to Rock” album (such as “Cotton Top” or “Love Makes Dreams Come True”), 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.