COUNTRY MUSIC REVIEW : Morgan Doesn’t Fulfill Promise

Lorrie Morgan’s California debut at the Crazy Horse Steak House on Monday showed that she is indeed one of the most promising young female country singers on the scene. But while the diminutive, TV-actress-lovely Morgan prevailed over a sore throat to prove that the Top 10 success of her “Leave the Light On” album is no fluke, the show also left much of her promise unfulfilled.

Much of the attention Morgan has received has been due to the tragic alcohol-induced death last May of her husband, singer/writer Keith Whitley. But the finessed ache of Morgan’s singing on her album would doubtless have earned her sufficient notice on its own.

Besides, Morgan is no newcomer to country: the daughter of Grand Ole Opry star George Morgan, she debuted on its stage when she was 13, and she spent two years on the road with George Jones. In her best moments, that seasoning certainly shows.

Aimed at the mainstream crossover country market, “Leave the Light On” rises above similar fare on the strength of Morgan’s emotive voice some songs worthy of that voice. Fewer than half of her show’s 13 songs were drawn from the album and without exception they accounted for the performance’s high spots.

Chief among those was “Dear Me,” a ballad letter to herself full of the pain of things undone and unsaid, and “He Talks to Me,” a touching ode to the truest definition of intimacy. On those songs, Morgan’s voice--which possesses both a belting punch and a light, controlled quaver--conveyed vulnerability and depth of feeling, and one couldn’t help but think of her loss last year.

There was a degree of that emotion in the other album songs “Leave the Light On” and “Out of Your Shoes.” Too much of her brief, 55-minute set, though, was frittered away on rock oldies and songs where her singing found no emotional grip.

A breakneck two-step cover of the Beatles’ “Eight Days a Week” did at least give the members of her five-piece band a chance to flash their chops, which they had in abundance in the persons of steel guitarist David Wood and pianist Spud Cottingham. The song did nothing to showcase Morgan’s talent, which received even shorter shrift on covers of “Great Balls of Fire” and “C.C. Rider.” On the latter tune, she recruited a gentleman from the audience to strike silly Elvis poses for her. The humor of that, and the jocular delivery of the oldies seemed forced and contrived.

That’s not to say Morgan shouldn’t have fun. Heck, just the previous Monday country stalwart Buck Owens had a regular yuck-fest on the Crazy Horse stage. But the crucial difference is that Owens’ lighter moments seemed natural and immediate, while Morgan’s had the scripted conviviality of a lounge band routine.

While ‘50s and ‘60s rock classics have long been corralled by country artists, Morgan also assayed some new, if not entirely well-considered territory. She closed her set with a cover of Journey’s “Faithfully.” Despite her presaging the song with claims of how much it meant to her, she and her band delivered it with all the vacuous commotion of the original.