The Gospel According to Al Green

Al Green says that he became “born-again” while singing at Disneyland in 1973.

It took several more years of inner grappling and personal traumas before Green traded his pop stardom for a preacher’s pulpit. But that religious revelation in Anaheim ultimately dictated the Gospel path Green has followed since the late 1970s.

Fans who loved Green’s distinctive way with romantic soul singing--sophisticated yet warm and intimate; precisely crafted, yet vocally adventuresome--may think it a mixed blessing that he discovered the Lord in the kingdom of the mouse. But there was little reason for any of Green’s fans to have had mixed feelings about his early show Tuesday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

Green, 43, did not answer the prayers of those who might have hoped for an ample sampling of his pre-gospel hits. But even a confirmed atheist would have had a hard time resisting the joyful energy with which his spirit bubbled over. Green laughed, danced and jumped about in his smart, cream-colored suit, took a hands-on role in conducting an 11-member band that he clearly regards with affection and displayed a still-mighty voice that loses none of its power when rising to its trademark falsetto.

An ordained Baptist minister, Green made a bit too much of the anomaly of being a man of the cloth come to sing spiritual praises in a barroom, and of the dichotomy between his pop and gospel careers. Besides a few blaring opening minutes when the sound balance was off, the only part of the show that was less than engaging was a coy bit in which Green would toss out snippets of his early ‘70s soul hits, as if to tempt both the audience and himself with forbidden, secular sweets.

“You’re crazy, you’re all going to get me fired,” Green said, joshingly, when the crowd responded enthusiastically to these morsels. In fact, there is nothing in most of Green’s love songs that would have clashed terribly with his spiritual slant. There isn’t anything cheap or tawdry about them. The Lord can hardly frown on the heartfelt expressions of love in numbers like “Call Me (Come Back Home),” “I’m Still in Love With You” and “Let’s Get Married.” A few of those oldies would have lent a nice sense of contrast and perspective, not to mention a more satisfying fullness, to a show that lasted just 60 minutes.

Green did give a full rendition to his biggest hit, “Let’s Stay Together.” Instead of using the cottony, murmuring lover’s tone that was his trademark as a romantic singer, Green sang the pop song in the forthright, high-energy voice of his religious songs, where the aim isn’t to melt with caresses, but to grab hold and shake.

For most of the set, Green’s performance grabbed hold and shook delightfully in a variety of styles and settings.

Green displayed both delicacy and fire during ballads like “Mighty Clouds of Joy,” “Amazing Grace” and an abbreviated “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” That Bee Gees song was a dejected lover’s unanswerable question when Green first recorded it. Now Green turned it into a rhetorical question as, finger pointed upward, he proclaimed Jesus as balm for the brokenhearted.

“As Long as We’re Together,” from Green’s latest album, “I Got Joy,” was a contemporary funk number, the only one departing from more traditional soul-gospel underpinnings. A bit too jarringly synthesized at the start, it developed into a good, grooving showcase for the band, which was driven by drummer Tim Dancy and his son, Delisco, a 13-year-old percussionist. A chunky soul-blues number, “Jesus Will Fix It,” began with Green recalling his spiritual awakening with improvised gospel sing-song preaching: “I was in Anaheim, California, minding my own business. Something got a hold on me. . . . “

All of those highlights were just preparation for a sublime finale--a tent-revival stomp through Jackie DeShannon’s “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” that kept going on and on. When Green wasn’t coming up with striking, husky improvisations, he was jumping and dancing as his band went through sharp solos and alert ensemble turns. It was a sweaty delight that seemed for a sweet moment as if it might go on indefinitely. If anyone present wasn’t quite sure beforehand what’s meant by the saying, “caught up in the spirit,” the Rev. Green made sure that everyone went away thoroughly edified, and, no matter what one’s creed, properly uplifted as well.