Quirky tribute due for Zevon

Tributes to Warren Zevon started coming well before the singer-songwriter died of cancer in September, with Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen working his songs into their concert repertoires.

Now those artists have contributed to an official Zevon tribute album, with live versions of Dylan performing the 1995 song “Mutineer” and Springsteen doing the sardonic 2002 song “My Ride’s Here” anchoring the collection, due in the fall from Artemis Records.

Those entries aren’t really surprises, given the long relationship between Zevon and the two artists. Nor is the presence on the album of Jackson Browne, one of Zevon’s closest friends.

But there are a couple of unexpected contributors, such as art-punk avatars the Pixies. The most unexpected participant, though, is certainly Adam Sandler, doing Zevon’s first and biggest hit, “Werewolves of London.” But don’t worry, the comedian doesn’t turn it into “Werewolves of Chanukah.”

That possibility was a concern of the late musician’s son, Jordan Zevon, co-executive producer of the project with Jorge Calderon, Zevon’s longtime bassist and co-writer.

“I was kind of back and forth about having Sandler,” Zevon says. “I thought some comedy would be good. Dad was such a funny guy and a fan of comedy. And then I was worried it might end up being too serious.

“I loved the idea initially because it was so left-field. But when I met Sandler at the session, he told me his dad had passed away recently, and he played a song he’d written about that which was funny but respectful. And that’s how he sang our track -- respectful, but at the end he deviates from the original a bit. It’s not a banana peel. It was a gamble that really paid off.”

The idea for having Sandler came from guitarist Waddy Wachtel, another longtime Zevon associate, who had worked with the comedian on his recording projects. Calderon too had reservations, but was soon convinced.

“At first I told Waddy, ‘I hope we’re not making a parody of the song,’ ” Calderon says. “He said, ‘No, I don’t think we will.’ And it fit like a glove. Adam sang it once and we were, ‘Oh, my God, this is great!’ He came in very prepared. He’s believable and quirky at the same time.”

(Sandler was not available for an interview.)

The idea for the album was floated before Zevon died.

“I even spoke to Warren about it and he was totally, ‘Not while I’m still here,’ ” Calderon says. “But we already had the idea between Jackson and myself and Artemis.”

Browne injected his own wry humor into the project by recording “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me,” which was written by Zevon in part as a spoof of the somber introspection associated with Browne’s early songs.

Don Henley did a version of “Searching for a Heart,” and Steve Earle has recorded “Reconsider Me.”

Calderon recorded “Keep Me in Your Heart,” which he co-wrote and for which Warren Zevon was given a posthumous Grammy nomination for male pop vocal in February. Jordan reached into his father’s archives and performed the unreleased “Studebaker,” on which he teamed with Jakob Dylan (Bob’s son) of the Wallflowers. It’s a song young Zevon heard for years on a homemade tape of his dad.

“He recorded this song it seems every other year, but never had a version he liked,” Jordan says. “I went back and did his original version.”

Getting it right

as Lefty Wilbury

Johnathan RICE hasn’t even released his debut album yet, and already he’s being cast as a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. Literally.

The singer-songwriter, whose first album is due in either late 2004 or early 2005 from Warner Bros./Reprise Records, is playing Roy Orbison in “Walk the Line,” the film biography of Johnny Cash currently in production. Joaquin Phoenix plays Cash, Reese Witherspoon is June Carter and new country-rocker Waylon Payne has the role of Jerry Lee Lewis.

Rice, though, may be the biggest casting stretch, with his light brown, shaggy hair and especially his accent -- the product of spending part of his childhood in Scotland -- that sounds nothing like Orbison’s Texas drawl.

The first issue was quickly taken care of when Rice, 21, landed in Memphis for filming last week.

“They cut off my hair, dyed it black, put the heavy glasses on me and dressed me like it was 1957,” he says.

The accent is a work in progress. Rice is honing his delivery and notes that he was born in Virginia and spent as much time there as in Scotland, so he has an ear for American inflections.

“The filmmakers spoke to me and know how I speak,” he says. “But I’ve had lots of friends who have done things like this and are helping me out with the accent.”

Meanwhile, Rice got the musical accent with the help of T-Bone Burnett, the film’s music supervisor, as they recorded a version of “You’re My Baby,” which was written by Cash and recorded by Orbison. Rice said he was lucky in that he didn’t have to try to re-create the almost operatic style of singing Orbison was known for on such classics as “Blue Bayou” and “Oh, Pretty Woman.”

“I had initial reservations about singing it,” says Rice, who plays at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood Monday and July 26. “But it’s an early Sun Records recording of his, so before Orbison developed the trademark falsetto.”