POP MUSIC REVIEW : After Heart Surgery, Waylon Jennings Doesn’t Miss a Beat

It usually seems that country singers start singing about how rough and rowdy they are at just about the point in their careers when they stop being rough and rowdy. But Waylon Jennings has been singing about his wild ways for years now, and even triple-bypass heart surgery and its concomitant changes in lifestyle haven’t taken the edge off his music.

Indeed, in his first show Monday night at the Crazy Horse Steak House--his four shows Monday and Tuesday were sold out--Jennings showed that he could prevail, even over the most cut-and-dried performance he has offered in years, and still make it a night to remember.

Jennings worked from a familiar song list, and nearly all of his humorous stories and asides were recycled from his show last year. But the emotion he gave to some of those songs, and the weathered baritone he used to communicate that emotion, made the package it came in seem a minor point.

Much like the presence John Wayne had on film, Jennings’ experienced voice nearly sums up an American ideal. Their versions of freedom were sufficiently different that, had Wayne and Jennings ever met, they probably would have enjoyed a good fistfight. But the work of each still represents a basic Western independence and sense of honor.

While that quality shone through even in Wayne’s worst films (if we can forget, briefly, “The Green Berets”), Jennings similarly left his stamp on what could have been a pedestrian set.

“It’s good to be here. It’s good to be anywhere !” he declared early in the show and went on to relate some of the “lighter sides of heart surgery.” His heart problems emerged two years ago when Jennings was hospitalized after experiencing chest pains between shows at the Crazy Horse.

Referring to club owner Fred Reiser, who recently collected the Crazy Horse’s fourth Academy of Country Music award for being the best nightclub in the country, Jennings noted, “Fred used to be known for having a great nightclub; now he’s famous for having the place where Waylon almost bought the farm.”

Rather than having tamed Jennings, his brush with destiny seems to have deepened the emotion and insight that goes into his singing. He still worked “Good-Hearted Woman,” “I’ve Always Been Crazy” and Rodney Crowell’s “Ain’t Living Long Like This” into a good lather.

But it was Jennings’ ballad singing that struck the truest chord. His “America” speaks of a country based on fair play--including the lines “The red man has a right to expect a little from you: a promise and then follow-through”--and his voice was that of a man who has seen that ideal both work and sometimes fall short.

As with his Crazy Horse appearance last year, Jennings’ finest moment came with Willie Nelson’s “It’s Not Supposed to Be That Way,” a father’s lament that his daughter is growing into life beyond his reach. Prefaced with some fatherly witticisms about his daughter’s boyfriends--”See, I know what they’re thinking, and what they’re thinking with”--it was a song full of feeling and heart.

Bringing out his wife, Jessie Colter, Jennings stood by her and asked: “Jessie and I have been married 20 years. Now who does it look like the marriage has been roughest on?” It’s a line he has used before, but it was still humorous coming from someone with his hell-beaten features. And it was fresher than the routine that followed, during which Jennings and Colter acted as if they were trying to decide which song she should do, as if she hasn’t done “I’m Not Lisa” at that point in his show since the beginning of time. Colter is a fine singer and doesn’t need to rely on that warhorse to prove it.

With the retirement of Ralph Mooney, Jennings’ deservedly legendary steel guitar player, his band sounds less full and somewhat less country now. Much of the space Mooney filled with his responsive strings is now taken up by keyboardist Barry Walsh, whose standard synth tones seemed about as right on Jennings’ songs as Gucci shoes on a cowhand. When Walsh adopted a conventional piano sound, however, he proved an excellent honky-tonk stylist.

With Mooney gone, Jennings is also stepping out more with his own guitar work. His playing was a fine counterpoint to his voice, saying a lot without flashy displays.