POP MUSIC : Roy Orbison Look-Alike Gets 2nd Shot at Limelight

For nearly eight years, beginning in 1981, singer Kenny Morrill plyed the San Diego nightclub circuit, working first with a country-rock band, California, and then with a couple of oldies groups, the Jets and Rama Lama.

He was in the spotlight, all right, but not in the limelight --as he had been a generation ago, when Kenny Morrill and the Wailers were the rage of the Pacific Northwest, scoring dozens of regional hits and even a national one, “Tall Cool One,” which charted in 1959 and again in 1964.

Last March, Morrill finally found his way back into the limelight. He left San Diego for Las Vegas and joined the Legends in Concert revue, impersonating the late, great Roy Orbison at the Imperial Palace.

Since then, packed houses and standing ovations have once again been the norm. And, although impersonators of dead rock stars are generally frowned upon by critics, Morrill’s act has won nothing but praise. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “The physical presence, tame demeanor and unusually wide vocal range ... are all brought back to life.”

“Close your eyes and you just might think it’s the real thing,” said Reno’s Fun and Gaming.

By summer, word of Morrill’s act had reached the Roy Orbison Memorial Committee, which was organizing a tribute concert to the late singer in his hometown of Wink, Tex., on what would have been his 53rd birthday.

Morrill was invited to headline the Aug. 26 concert by the committee’s chairman, Wink Mayor Maxie Watts, who in a letter to the impersonator’s agent wrote, “After a thorough review of the tapes and videos of Mr. Morrill, we were extremely impressed (by) not only his voice likeness to Roy Orbison but his appearance. . . . Those of us who knew Roy found the similarities uncanny, even eerie.”

The concert, at Wildcat Stadium, was attended by 3,000 people and raised more than $10,000 for the Roy Orbison Memorial Fund, which will be used to erect a larger-than-life bronze statue of Orbison in downtown Wink.

Sharing the stage with Morrill were three members of the Wink Westerners, Orbison’s original band, and his oldest surviving son, Wesley Orbison. Wesley sang backup on “The Only One,” a tune he co-wrote with his father and which appeared on Orbison’s posthumous comeback album, ‘Mystery Girl,’ released last February.

“It was really quite an experience,” Morrill said. “It was a little eerie at first--the fans were naturally skeptical, just like everyone is skeptical before they hear me. But, when it was over, they gave me a standing ovation, and afterward they treated me like I was the man himself.

“The mayor gave me the key to the city, I got to meet all his old friends, and I was invited to headline again next year. Things went so well that they’re making this an annual event.”

Morrill said that, although impersonating Roy Orbison is fine for now, it’s not his ultimate career goal. “Obviously I would like to do my own thing,” Morrill said. “I’m hoping this will be a springboard to establishing myself as a singer in my own right, although I’ll probably always devote at least a part of my shows to doing some form of tribute to Roy.”

The Country Gentlemen, appearing Thursday night at the Pomerado Club in Poway, is considered the first “progressive” bluegrass band.

Instead of sticking with traditional bluegrass tunes like “Two Little Boys,” which dates back to the Civil War, and Doc Williams’ “Willie Roy, the Crippled Boy,” the Washington-based quartet also plays bluegrass interpretations of familiar folk, country and pop standards, ranging from “Greensleeves” to “Yesterday” and “The House of the Rising Sun.”

It’s been that way ever since the group formed in 1957, said guitarist Charlie Waller, the Country Gentlemen’s only original member.

“We’ve always played whatever we wanted to. When we first got together, we purposely played a lot of different things because we wanted to make people sit up and listen and say, ‘These guys are not just a bunch of hillbillies.’

“And to this day, we’ve consistently managed to avoid the boundaries most bluegrass groups have because it’s always been our intent to reach a wider audience. To us, bluegrass is a very free music, just like jazz. It’s not what you play, but how you play it.”

The Country Gentlemen’s mission to introduce bluegrass to the masses has been quite successful. In the early 1960s, the group played at Carnegie Hall and at the Newport Folk Festival. They’ve appeared on countless U.S. TV shows and toured throughout Europe and Japan. Among the group’s celebrated alumni are Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve done, and what we’re continuing to do,” Waller said. “Bluegrass is real country music, real American , and it’s about time it got the recognition it deserves.”

LINER NOTES: Vladimir Kuzmin and Dinamik, the Soviet rock band whose six-night stand at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art ended Oct. 31, was supposed to return to the Soviet Union the next Monday. But, as of last weekend, the band members were still in San Diego, cutting a three-song demonstration tape at The Studio in Kearny Mesa. “They came to this country to work,” said Scott Pedersen, promoter of the six Sherwood Auditorium shows, “and they’re going to stay in this country as long as we can find reasons to keep them here.” Pedersen plans on shopping the tape to U.S. record companies in the hopes of landing Kuzmin and Dinamik a U.S. record deal. . . .

Johnny Lydon of Public Image Limited didn’t settle for the normal backstage grub last Wednesday before his group’s concert at Golden Hall downtown. The former Sex Pistol’s preshow meal: a take-out order of barbecue chicken from the nearby Kansas City Barbecue. . . .

Tickets go on sale Friday at 3 p.m. for the Indigo Girls’ Dec. 16 concert at the California Theater downtown, and for Sam Kinison’s Dec. 16 appearance at Symphony Hall, also downtown. Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. for a New Year’s Eve concert at the San Diego Sports Arena with the B-52s, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Love Tractor. . . . The The’s concert at the California Theater, scheduled for Saturday, has been postponed until March 6. Refunds are available at point of purchase. . . .

Best concert bets for the coming week: Taj Mahal and Jerry Giddens, Thursday at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach; Spirit, Friday at Winston’s Beach Club in Ocean Beach; the Alarm and the Kevin McDermott Orchestra, also Friday, at the UC San Diego Gym; the Paladins and the Dime Bags, Saturday at the Belly Up Tavern; and Dave Mason, Sunday at the Bacchanal in Kearny Mesa.