There’s a Drought, but Three Newcomers Show Promise

The search continues in country music.

From the late ‘40s through mid-’70s, the country world produced so many great singers and records that it was easy for outsiders to underestimate the degree of artistry required.

All you needed was a singer with character and conviction, instrumental backing that accented rather than diluted the emotion and a memorable song. The latter, preferably, included at least one easily quotable line.

And there seemed no end of a supply of great artists: from Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell to Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, and from Kitty Wells and Patsy Cline to Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris.

But the great artists and great records have now become the exception in country music. Only two mainstream Nashville figures have emerged in the last dozen or so years to even approach the consistency or vision of the singers cited above--John Anderson and Randy Travis--and both seemed more echoes of the earlier stars than breakthroughs.

Two other, more recent arrivals, k.d. lang and Lyle Lovett, have shown exceptional promise, but both are mavericks who haven’t been fully accepted in Nashville as part of the official country family.

This lingering drought in country music is why so much attention in Nashville is focused these days on newcomers. Here’s a look at some of the lastest country contenders. None joins the honor roll on the basis of these new albums, but there are some twinkles of promise. The albums are rated on a five-star scale, from one (poor) to five (a classic).

*** Jann Browne’s “Tell Me Why” (Curb)--One reason the music of this veteran of Southern California honky-tonks seems so reminiscent of Emmylou Harris is that Steve Fishell, who used to play steel guitar in Harris’ band, produced it and other musicians who have been associated with Harris play on the album. It also doesn’t hurt that Harris sings harmony on one track.

However, the main reason Browne makes you think of country music’s most enchanting female singer is that Browne sings with a similar purity and sense of integrity as Harris. She, too, can can make a new song (her own “Mexican Wind,” a soulful tale of romantic loss) feel like a classic or inject new life into an old favorite (Harlan Howard-Fuzzy Owen’s “The One You Slip Around With”). Strong potential.

*** Mark Collie’s “Hardin County Line” (MCA)--Collie would have been at home in country in the ‘50s, when rockabilly and honky-tonk shuffle were the rage. He sings both styles with a biting authenticity and is backed by a first-rate band that includes guitarist James Burton, who was Elvis Presley’s guitarist for years. He also writes lots of quotable lines.

Collie is a little too intent on touching all the thematic country bases (ramblin’ fever, the old days), but most of his songs about relationships have a wry, bittersweet edge. In the opening track, Collie tells about stumbling home after working the all-night shift to find a note attached to the freezer: “The good news is she loves me / The bad news is she’s gone.” Elsewhere, he offers, “Now where there’s smoke, you’ll find my old flame.”

* 1/2 Alan Jackson’s “Here in the Real World” (Arista)--Jackson aims high. He’s quoted on the inside sleeve of the album package as saying, “You know that country song, ‘Who’s Gonna Fill Them Shoes?’ I don’t know whether I can fill ‘em, but I’d sure like to try ‘em on.” In this debut collection, Jackson is off to a fast start commercially. The album has been in the country Top 10 since April 21.

If he’s truly hoping to fill the shoes of such country greats as George Jones, however, he’s got a long way to go. The artist he most resembles (in cowboy-hat image and musical style) is contemporary Dwight Yoakam.

Like the latter, Jackson is good at approximating emotion, but he doesn’t show much original vision or musical soul. Selections such as “Blue Blooded Woman” have quotable lines, but they’re mostly Nashville hokum. Sample: “She loves a violin, I love a fiddle / We go separate ways but we meet in the middle / Don’t see eye to eye, but we’re hand in hand / A blue-blooded woman and a red-neck man.”

* 1/2 Travis Tritt’s “Country Club” (Warner Bros.)--Joining Alan Jackson in the country Top 10 these days, Tritt is equally suspect. He deals in a harder-edged, semi-rock brand of country, suggesting his model is more Hank Williams Jr. than George Jones. There’s a sense of drama in his singing and in the arrangements, but the themes--as telegraphed in such song titles as “Son of the New South” and “The Road Home”--have been part of the accepted country songbook for years. The singing is generally undistinguished, the arrangements are routine and the album’s most quotable line comes from a song (“Country Club”) that Tritt didn’t write.

** 1/2 Kelly Willis’ “Well Traveled Love” (MCA)--This 21-year-old, Austin-based singer exudes such personality and spirit that she reminds you of the early promise of Lone Justice’s Maria McKee, a point that wasn’t lost on Carlyne Majer, who worked with Lone Justice and now manages Willis.

Willis balances feelings of spunky optimism and lesson-learned caution so well in the opening track that you think the album is going to soar. While her voice continues to dazzle, the album is limited by often pedestrian instrumental backing and by too few top-notch songs. The next album may be the real test.