POP MUSIC REVIEW : A Shadow Over Black : The gifted singer and songwriter is unassuming and pales next to the vocal artistry of second-billed Merle Haggard. But Clint Black’s future beckons.

It was Clint Black’s bad timing to follow Garth Brooks by three months and Merle Haggard by half an hour. That’s like a pop contender finding himself in the shadows of Springsteen and Sinatra.

Next to Brooks, the singer who appears to be Black’s only significant rival for pre-eminence in country music in the ‘90s, Black came off as a modest and unassuming performer at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on Saturday. And next to the consummate vocal artistry displayed the same night by second-billed Haggard, Black proved to be a callow singer.

But he’s also a gifted and earnest singer, and on Saturday he and his six-member band sounded great, from the thump of the bass drum to the chunk of the rhythm guitar. It was a crystal-clear backdrop for Black’s taut, supple voice.

As a singer, the Texan tended to underplay, relying on the straightforwardness and honesty inherent in his mid- to high-range voice. He played it close to the vest, applying minimal decoration--occasional dips and turns like twists in a ribbon, or the quick, tricky phrasing in the chorus of ragtimey “Put Yourself in My Shoes.”

Haggard, following a brief opening set by Carlene Carter, had earlier demonstrated the value of that kind of restraint--as well as something Black has yet to develop: the ability to make each line seem shaped by the force of inner emotion, to discover the lyric anew every time.

While Haggard’s offhand immediacy made you hang on every word, Black seemed confined by the songs and timid about stretching out, leaving things pleasant but unchallenging. (It also might help if he’d cut down on the band’s multi-part backup vocals, which eventually tended to undo with every chorus the emotional complexities Black had built on the verses.)

With his cowboy squint and easy smile, Black conveyed a genuine enthusiasm, and the ladies’ screams and gifts of flowers and teddy bears deposited at his feet affirmed his appeal as a personality. But he didn’t show any interest in establishing the kind of larger-than-life stance that made Brooks such a startling performer in his recent Southern California shows.

Brooks has a vastly more ambitious concept of what a country-music performance can accomplish in terms of revelation and inspiration, and nobody--including Black--is likely to challenge him on that ground.

But Black has one advantage that could make this a long and provocative rivalry: Unlike Brooks, he’s developing a distinctive songwriting voice. On a foundation of roots-country with dips into swing, ragtime and a touch of jazz, Black (often collaborating with his lead guitarist, Hayden Nicholas) has fashioned a string of reflective, revealing songs. Commercial too: There were five No. 1 country hits on his first album.

Black, who’s still shy of 30, has time and talent on his side. Experience is the thing he needs now, and he might turn to one of his own philosophical lyrics for comfort and inspiration about his future: “Everybody knows you live and you learn / But the lessons just go on and on.”