DEAD RINGER ROOKIE

“STORMS OF LIFE.” Randy Travis. Warner Bros. This highly touted country rookie is being compared to such greats as Lefty Frizzell, George Jones and Merle Haggard. It’s no wonder, either. His debut LP opens with the recent single, “On the Other Hand,” which sounds so much like Haggard you want to double-check the label. Likewise, his hit “1982” is a dead ringer for a George Jones weeper. But there’s a big difference between a great voice, which Travis has, and a great vocalist--which he isn’t, at least not yet. Above all, a great vocalist needs distinctiveness, but Travis recalls other singers so powerfully he eclipses his own identity. He is least affected on “Send My Body” and “Reasons I Cheat”--the two songs he wrote and which also show he as a promising songwriter. But before he is pegged as country’s Next Great Hope, Travis and his champions should keep in mind that Frizzell, Jones, Haggard and the others didn’t get into the Hall of Fame by sounding like someone else.