Carpenter Delivers Her Usual No-Nonsense Moderation : Pop music review: The singer’s Greek Theatre concert shows her at her best, but points out a danger to her style.

Newt Gingrich’s worst nightmare . . .

Would that be public broadcasting fund-raisers on every channel? A front-row seat with Bob Dole at a Geto Boys concert? Some tough conflict-of-interest legislation?

According to country-pop singer Mary Chapin Carpenter, addressing the Greek Theatre audience near the end of her concert Wednesday, it’s Mary Chapin Carpenter.

Even though it was offered lightheartedly, the depiction seemed like an uncharacteristically self-aggrandizing sentiment from an otherwise modest performer.

And it was certainly a severe case of wishful thinking, since Carpenter’s most threatening imaginable posture might be termed spunky . What was the statement that would have the conservative House speaker tossing and turning? A polite call for government funding of school lunches and the arts.

While the rock and rap realms of pop have become increasingly radicalized and factionalized in response to perceived threats, Carpenter’s central aesthetic is one of moderation. The ultimate pop centrist, she forms a musical coalition of mainstream light rock (wielding a Rickenbacker 12-string on “Passionate Kisses” Wednesday, she evoked Byrds and British Invasion), singer-songwriter pop, folk-rock and classic American pop balladry.

Country? Carpenter has been an awards magnet in Nashville and at the Grammys the last few years, but her style contains little that’s generally thought of as real country, either in instrumentation (her sound onstage was determined by grand piano and two pop-rock-leaning guitars), vocal style or spirit.

At the Greek, Carpenter was every bit the down-to-earth, no-nonsense figure you’d expect, declining to glamorize or intensify her image or her music. Her plainness goes to the heart of her appeal, and her audience would be distressed if it got anything other than the girl next door.

The reward is the directness and honesty that bolster Carpenter’s anthems of encouragement and inspiration and that enrich her introspective reflections on relationships and life’s points of passage. Her voice is limited in range, but when she gets hold of a narrative line she rarely lets go.

The danger is dullness, and here Carpenter finds mixed success.

The concert was dominated by material from her 1992 breakthrough album “Come On Come On” and the current “Stones in the Road,” and the well-designed pacing helped obscure the latter’s lugubrious tendencies.

The fundamental musical philosophy, though, is so tasteful and meticulous that no rough edges are permitted to intrude. Carpenter is great at comforting, but if her pal Newt gets his way, she’ll need to learn how to challenge.

* Carpenter also plays Saturday (with the Mavericks opening) at the Greek Theatre, 2700 N. Vermont Ave., 7:30 p.m. Sold out. (213) 480-3232.