JUST ONE REVOLUTION AFTER ANOTHER IN COUNTRY MUSIC

Here’s to the New Country . . . same as the Old Country?

Ever since shaking off the slick pop trimmings of the “Urban Cowboy” movement, Nashville has been talking about a revolution--and one seems to have taken hold.

At the 21st annual Country Music Assn. Awards ceremony here Monday night, Randy Travis--by far the most successful member of the back-to-basics contingent that has surfaced in the ‘80s--was the evening’s big winner.

Travis, a part-time dishwasher in a local club just two years ago, was honored in the nationally televised event for best male vocalist, best album (“Always and Forever”) and best single record (“Forever and Ever, Amen”). The winners are determined by the 7,500 members of the association.

At a post-ceremony party, the 28-year-old North Carolina native made it clear that he is interested in reviving styles, not forging new sounds. “I don’t take a lot of chances,” he said.

Several other key winners, including Reba McEntire (best female singer for the fourth straight year) and the Judds (best vocal group for the third year in a row) also represent the traditional side of country.

Even Holly Dunn, whose folky, singer-songwriter style earned the Horizon Award honoring the industry’s top rising star, stressed her ties with country’s past.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Dunn, the daughter of a Texas minister, said at the party at the Opryland Hotel.

But there’s also talk here of another, more adventurous revolution in country music. The status of this one, however, remains unclear. The troops are led by artists like K. D. Lang, a flashy Canadian singer who describes her approach as “torch ‘n’ twang,” country-rockers Dave Alvin and Steve Earle, and sophisticated Texas wordsmith Lyle Lovett.

A few of these artists were on stage at the awards show Monday (notably Lang and Lovett, joining Hank Williams Jr. in a salute to the changing spirit of “young country”), but they were noticeably absent from the list of nominees. Their records are also hard to find on country radio station play lists.

“We have a very conservative membership,” said Judi Turner, the association’s director of publicity. About the lack of nominations for Earle and Dwight Yoakam, the Los Angeles-based neo-honky-tonker, she sighed and said, “They may be outside (the membership’s) parameters.”

Still, there is a groundswell of optimism among industry insiders here that country music fans will eventually embrace these more independent newcomers the same way they have fallen in line behind the traditionalists.

“The barriers are gone,” said Williams, who was named entertainer of the year, the association’s top award. “It’s changed a lot and it will keep changing. I have a large, young audience and they buy a lot of records. And I also have grandmas in the front row (waving) banners.”

The son of country music’s most celebrated songwriter, Williams, 38, rocks as hard as ZZ Top--his “My Name Is Bocephus” video, which was declared the year’s best video, features rock group Van Halen. Though Williams has been a top draw for more than 20 years, official recognition from organizations like the association has come slowly.

Asked about all the speculation here over what’s in store next for country music, Ricky Skaggs, part of the traditionalist movement and winner for best vocal duo with his wife Sharon White, joked, “Look for Michael Jackson to do a country album.”