Pop Music : Too Light a Rogers in Anaheim

If he really knew when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em, Kenny Rogers either would take “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” out of his deck of songs, pronto , or learn to play it as if it meant something.

The late ‘60s Mel Tillis composition detailing the emotional agony of a crippled Vietnam vet and his wife is a gem, a devastating account of the wages of war. Rogers, either too obtuse or too caught up in being the breezy entertainer to notice that relevance, turned “Ruby” into a jaunty, joking, clap-along number Saturday night at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim, utterly divorcing it from all meaning embedded in the song. In better times, it would have been merely airheaded. In these times, it bordered on being offensive.

Rogers’ mangling of “Ruby” was indicative of his overall approach, in which songs became so much fodder for an evening’s light entertainment rather than inherently valuable capsules from which feelings and experiences unfold. The only aim evident in Rogers’ affable but empty late show Saturday was to keep his fans reasonably amused for 70 minutes. Mission, such as it was, accomplished. He’ll also headline the Universal Amphitheatre on April 14.