POP MUSIC REVIEW : Seals’ Performance Barely Makes a Ripple : The veteran singer serves up rote versions of his hits, conveying just a smidgen of good-time spirit in a likably forgettable show.

If Merle Haggard’s music were a movie, it might be something fine and gritty, like John Huston’s “Fat City.”

It’s hard to imagine what kind of movie Dan Seals’ music might inspire. “Barney Meets the Care Bears,” perhaps?

In his 55-minute early show Monday at the Crazy Horse Steak House, the veteran cow-pop (did I forget an “L” somewhere?) singer gave a likably forgettable performance that might only find its cinematic equal in a feature-length film of goldfish feeding or of large friendly dogs exploring a lawn. There just wasn’t much going on.

That’s no great shame.

While there are country artists who serve as a moral compass for our society or who swim the far reaches of the soul, there certainly are enough others merely taking a musical sponge-bath that there’s no reason to single out Seals.

The West Texas-born singer, who was half of the pop duo England Dan and John Ford Coley and is brother to Seals and Crofts’ Jim Seals--has said he grew up listening to Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson. While his show did convey a smidgen of their good-time spirit, there was no attempt to approach their artistry or impact.

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Instead, he and his able quartet generally served up rote versions of his hits. Seals has a pleasant, but undistinguished, voice, aided neither by emotion nor by the sound mix Monday, which sometimes lost his lyrics in the music.

He didn’t fit all his hits into the 13-song set, but there were still quite a few, including “My Old Yellow Car,” “Bop,” the moderately rocking “Three Time Loser,” “Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold)” and the encore “One Friend.”

The standouts, such as they were, included his version of Jesse Winchester’s “Sweet Little Shoe”--delivered with some rich, low vocal harmonies from his band mates and a beguiling musical arrangement--and “They Rage On.”

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Though nearly divorced from the mood of that song’s subject--the crushing frustrations of growing up in a small town--his vocal was undeniably lovely and again was given a fine harmony support from his band.

Somewhat to his credit, Seals did introduce several new songs in the performance, ones due out shortly on a Warner Bros. album to be titled “All Fired Up.”

The title tune, as well as the album’s “Call Me Up” and one presumably called “Still Reeling From Those Rock and Roll Days,” was anything but fired up--just more of the same professional, uninspired stuff that has been Seals’ trademark for years.