Out With the Old

We should have realized that all fences were down in country music when Garth Brooks, on his way to nearly 70 million album sales, began reaching out in his shows for songs by such non-Nashville residents as the Rolling Stones and Billy Joel.

Still, it was surprising Saturday at the Universal Amphitheatre when country star Bryan White opened his set with Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” and LeAnn Rimes later closed hers with Prince’s “Purple Rain.”

What’s next, Rod Stewart’s “Hot Legs”?

Well, that was actually played over the sound system during intermission.

Welcome to New Country, indeed.

Though country purists complain about any embrace of rock or pop, Emmylou Harris, probably the most respected country arrival of the last 25 years, has shown that country can be enriched by venturing intelligently into rock, soul and pop for ideas and material.

The varying effectiveness of the White and Rimes numbers Saturday told a lot about the relative strengths of these young stars, both of whom have won Country Music Assn. Newcomer of the Year awards.

Like most of his hour-plus performance, White’s rendition of the ‘70s R&B; hit was largely colorless. Rimes’ version of Prince’s ‘80s rock-pop anthem, however, was a revelation.

Rimes’ debut single, “Blue,” was an extraordinary record, but the arrangement on the 1996 hit was so deeply rooted in the torch style of the late Patsy Cline that it didn’t really reveal anything about Rimes’ own musical instincts.

With “Purple Rain” on Saturday, Rimes provided the most convincing sign yet that there is genuine artistic depth behind this 15-year-old’s spectacular voice. Her gritty, intense vocal was stirring enough to make one wish that Prince would try to write songs once again with such simplicity and power. (The song is also on Rimes’ upcoming album, due May 5.)

Despite this pop-rock experimentation and a less encouraging fondness for Celine Dion-like melodrama in such songs as the new “Surrender,” Rimes’ music continued Saturday to be centered in country. “Commitment,” her new single, is one of the teenager’s strongest tracks yet.

While her musical credentials are improving with each concert appearance here, Rimes, backed by a seven-piece band, has yet to develop much of a stage personality. She could greatly improve her presentation by revealing, without sounding scripted, something more about the songs and, therefore, herself.

The sold-out Universal shows Friday and Saturday were part of a lengthy, co-headlining U.S. tour for Rimes and the 24-year-old White, who looks like a prettier Bryan Adams.

White’s good looks and romantic themes kept lots of the female fans shrieking throughout, but his musical direction--at once far less traditional country than Rimes’, yet also far less daring in its pop embrace--was mostly pedestrian.

Though he has solid vocal command, he exhibited so little character in his singing that it was hard to tell whether White’s material simply has little emotional range or he isn’t capable of expressing that emotion in any distinguishing way.

When Rimes joined White on a duet late in his hour-plus set, you would never have guessed from their voices that there is a nine-year difference in their ages. But there was no missing the difference in their artistry.