POP MUSIC REVIEW : Osmond Gains Spark as a Country Girl

If only Donny Osmond had followed the path of his sister, Marie. Before finding his recent dance-pop success with “Soldier of Love,” poor Donny spent chartless years with his man-child brow a-furrowed, wondering why--after an eternity of pouring musical Hawaiian Punch concentrate into America’s living rooms--he had no credibility.

Meanwhile, Marie was racking up hit after country hit, for country music is the great forgiver. Perhaps because so much of its lyric matter is based on human frailties, the country world has welcomed ex-cons, lushes, pill heads, worn-out rockers, fire bugs and worse with open arms. If wanderin’ Lawrence Singleton had only waxed a couple of Hank Snow tunes, he would probably be hitching up his trailer at Opryland now.

Although Marie Osmond certainly is of a moral character far removed from the above categories, her sin, to borrow from Bob Dylan, was her lifelessness. She and her saccharine siblings created some of the most bland, formulaic music ever visited upon this earth.

But, just as sure as Merle Haggard was able to give up stealing hubcaps, country music seems to have changed Osmond for the better.

The country-pop blend she offered Monday night at the Crazy Horse Steak House might not have been the sort of heart-born stuff that will see a soul through its darkest night, but it was solid entertainment with more than a spark of life to it.

Sandwiched between her opening version of Cheap Trick’s power-pop classic “I Want You to Want Me” and a brace of Hank Williams tunes in her encore, Osmond’s 80-minute set contained most of her hits and a few songs for which, one could be convinced, she actually had some feeling.

Chief among those was “I’ll Be Faithful to You,” a ballad about trust and rebuilding broken lives that sounded as if she had been there. Featuring her six-piece band on mandolin, fiddle and acoustic guitar, the song was also about as countrified as she got.

Most of her other numbers bore more relation to ‘60s Lulu tunes than they did to country tradition. Those included “I Only Wanted You,” “There’s No Stopping Your Heart,” her junior-high-age hit “Paper Roses,” and the duet tunes “You’re Still New to Me” and “Meet Me in Montana,” with guitarist Jim Brown doing a capable job on the male vocals.

One of the show’s high points came from an unexpected quarter. Osmond typically pulls a person from the audience to duet with her on a song. On this occasion the chosen one, a fellow identified as Shorty--sporting a black cowboy hat and a gilt belt buckle the size of a pancake--surprised Osmond and the audience by delivering a fairly remarkable approximation of Willie Nelson’s singing style on Nelson’s “Crazy.”

If not as sterling, the too-cute version of “All My Ex’s Live in Texas” by Osmond’s 6-year-old son, Steven, at least assured that there will be little Osmonds in our lives for years to come.