O.C. POP MUSIC REVIEW : Wild Rose Ablooming : At Santa Ana’s Crazy Horse Saloon, the all-woman country band shows that honest craft is behind its appeal.

As the only all-female country band signed to a major label, Wild Rose has a handy hook to grab media interest. But that hook must also seem a thorn at times.

Some of the attention the group gets focuses on the rarity of five women playing country music; other reports take the “they-play-real-good-for-girls” approach.

But the simple fact is, there are few bands of any chromosomal predisposition in country today that Wild Rose couldn’t smoke with their own pipes.

In its early show at the Crazy Horse on Monday, the quintet showed it belongs among that select group of younger performers that is keeping country’s musicianship and passion alive. With most of its members strongly grounded in bluegrass, the band seemed somewhat akin to the recently disbanded New Grass Revival in its musical ability and abandon. And it didn’t take a horticulturist to see that Wild Rose and the Desert Rose Band belong to the same genus of singular, honest craftsmanship.

The group is led by Wanda Vick, who is a true wonder on guitar, fiddle, dobro and pedal steel. The front-line singing is provided by Pamela Gadd and Pam Perry, either of whom could easily get by on singing alone. But Gadd also is formidable on guitar and banjo, while Perry plays an inspired mandolin. Both previously played with the bluegrass New Coon Creek Girls. The group is ably completed by bassist Kathy Mac and drummer Nancy Given Prout.

The group’s instrumental chops were put to the test on the Western swing-inflected “Go Down Swingin,’ ” given a lyrical jazz violin solo by Vick, with its second half impeccably doubled by Gadd’s guitar. The band’s signature “Wild Rose” breakneck instrumental found the members hurtling across musical borders, mixing bluegrass with progressive jazz.

For all the instrumental rampage the outfit unleashed on such showcase numbers, the five also nimbly reined those wild talents to serve their songs, drawn from their debut “Breaking New Ground” album from early this year and the forthcoming “Straight and Narrow” album.

The Perry-penned “Teach Me How to Say Goodbye” and Paul Kramer’s “Where Did We Go Wrong?” were each given an emotional ballad treatment, with Vick’s atmospheric pedal steel setting the mood for the latter. Her fiddle bow dipped into some Cajun spices for “On the Bayou.” The new single “Everything He Touches (Turns to Gold)” was as celebratory and ebullient a bit of country rock as has ever appeared on the radio.

Wild Rose’s only debit is that not all the material is as worthy of the band’s talents. A pair of Skip Ewing songs from the new album, “Can’t You Just Stay Gone” and “Rock-a-Bye Heart,” were slick constructions on which the band seemed unable to get an emotional foothold.

The band probably could have benefited from a more dramatically structured set--when the musicians finished, there was the impression of having just seen a bunch of songs rather than a complete “show.” But there was a beneficial trade-off: The easygoing stage manner seemed delightfully unaffected, a rarity amid country’s typical show-biz gloss. And one had to love the band’s cornball humor, such as Gadd remarking, “Your hair looks really good tonight, Wanda--especially on your legs.”