POP MUSIC REVIEWS : A Night of Nostalgia With Honky-Tonk Man Ray Price

Ray Price has had quite a run--more than 100 country hits over four decades, an innovative role in the evolution of honky-tonk music, and an unpredictable pattern that saw him go from orchestrated pop ballads such as “Danny Boy” to a hit version of the young Kris Kristofferson’s “For the Good Times.”

Price’s reading of that challenging lyric was the most absorbing moment in his show at the Crazy Horse on Monday, where the 67-year-old Texan conducted an easygoing overview of his career. The first of the evening’s two sets was marked by a musical professionalism and a respect for the legacy, if not by much ambition and imagination.

Vocally he still has some range, along with the familiar deep, uneven rumble. Particularly on such ‘50s classics as “Crazy Arms,” it all fit together in a winning blend of nostalgia and immediacy. The archetypal Price persona was the decent man virtually paralyzed by heartbreak, and he packs his pain into soaring pleas like “Release Me” and “Make the World Go Away.”

It’s too bad he didn’t add some dimension to the show by incorporating some memories and anecdotes. If not a particularly colorful fellow himself, he’s sure spent time with some, including Willie Nelson (a former band member) and Hank Williams.

Instead, his principal conversation involved little jokes about his age and, unfortunately, some jarring ethnic humor in tandem with his fine pianist, Moises Calderon. Say no mas, Moises!