NO STRINGS ATTACHED\Session man Wayne Perkins now playing with own band.

Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Music Writer

The name Wayne Perkins may not ring a bell, but if you're a fan of rock or reggae, you've probably heard him play guitar.

Perkins is one of those prolific session cats known to musicians, producers and obsessives who sit in their rooms memorizing album credits. Rolling Stones historians are familiar with Perkins for another reason: At age 23, Perkins came this close to landing the vacant lead guitar chair in the Stones after Mick Taylor left the band.

Competition for the gig was fierce. After Eric Clapton made the call suggesting Perkins as Taylor's replacement, the Birmingham, Ala.-bred guitarist flew to Munich for auditions. Jeff Beck, Rory Gallagher, Mick Ronson and Harvey Mandel were also under consideration.

"It was always one of my goals to play lead guitar with the biggest rock 'n' roll band in the world," Perkins said from his Mendocino home. "When I got there, it was the strangest thing - they played like the worst garage band I'd every heard in my life. I knew the records, but I wasn't impressed with them live. Then, the red light in the studio went on and something magic happened. All of a sudden they went from awful to incredible."

Perkins became close friends with Keith Richards, overdubbed guitar on "Fool to Cry" and other songs on the 1976 "Black and Blue" album, but ultimately didn't get the job. The gig, of course, went to the Stones' fellow Londoner, Ronnie Wood, but Perkins does have a platinum record hanging on his living room wall for his studio work with the Stones.

These days, Perkins is playing with his own band in support of his just-released solo album, "Mendo Hotel." Joining him for the sessions, which took in blues, reggae, Southern rock and country, were Huey Lewis, Sean Hopper (of the News), Lonnie Mack and the famous Muscle Shoals rhythm section. Memphis knob twirler and keyboardist Jim Dickinson co-produced. Perkins expects to play a show at the House of Blues in West Hollywood in the next few months.

Over the years, Perkins has been on call in studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala.; and Memphis and Nashville, Tenn. His credits include work on the first Bob Marley & the Wailers album, Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark," an early Michael Bolton effort, plus discs by Albert King, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Delbert McClinton, Frankie Miller, Al Green, the Oak Ridge Boys and Ronnie Milsap, among numerous others.

Born 44 years ago to musical parents, Perkins remembers seeing guitars always around the house. He began by mimicking the sounds on Jimmie Rogers and Hank Williams records and soon came across the music of Booker T. & the MG's and B.B. King, followed by the Beatles, the Stones, the Yardbirds and Jimi Hendrix.

"Growing up in the South with no TV, you do one of two things," he said. "And the other was play music."

In the late '60s, Perkins landed a job at Muscle Shoals Sound, where Duane Allman had just quit the in-house lead guitar position to go back to Georgia and put together the Allman Brothers Band.

"I started doing sessions for Ronnie Milsap's first album," Perkins said. "Then, there were albums by Joe Cocker, Leon Russell, Jim Capaldi and Steve Winwood."

A few years later, the guitarist formed Smith, Perkins & Smith, a group based around two brothers from Birmingham. The band was signed to the British label Island, and it was decided the trio would make itself known in England first.

While making a Smith, Perkins & Smith album in spring 1972 at Island Studios in London, label head Chris Blackwell called Perkins downstairs where Bob Marley and the original Wailers were cutting their debut disc, "Catch a Fire."

"It was the first time I'd heard reggae," Perkins recalled. "I had no clue what to expect. First, I couldn't understand a word these guys were saying. You know, they had the dreadlocks, the 2-foot-long joints, the heavy Jamaican accents. I had no idea what they wanted me to play.

"In Muscle Shoals, I would always say, 'Roll the tape right away,' because my best stuff is going to be the first time through the song. Anyway, that's what we did with the Wailers. I knew I had it when I looked in the control room and all I could see was a big cloud of smoke, and then Marley comes running out. It was one of those Kodak moments."

Perkins wasn't credited on "Catch a Fire," although word of who played the sizzling solos on "Concrete Jungle" and "Stir It Up" quickly leaked out.

"Blackwell wanted everyone to think the Wailers was a self-contained band," Perkins said. "I didn't really care about the credits at the time."

Although Perkins isn't known as a singer, he acquits himself admirably on his new album. Among the tracks is "Big Stratocaster," a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Perkins moved from Nashville to Mendocino along the Northern California coast two years ago. He was working as bassist for the early rock 'n' roll guitarist Lonnie Mack when the band manager invited Perkins to see the area.

"He put me on a bike in the middle of the redwoods, and I was hooked," he said. "It's like no other place on the planet. It's an acquired taste with the mist and all the rain, but I love it here.

"In Nashville, I was like a fish out of water. It's a weird mind-set there. No matter how good you are, unless you have a deal, people feel there's something wrong with you."

As for his famous namesake, rockabilly pioneer Carl Perkins, there is no relation. "I talked to Carl about it and we compared relatives, but we couldn't find any in common."

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Photo (Wayne Perkins)