POP MUSIC REVIEWS : This Time, Loveless Is More : At her most recent Crazy Horse show, the singer had a far stronger set of tunes that suited her exquisite voice.

The third time is the charm, the saying goes (where do these sayings start anyway, in a government “avuncular homilies” program?). At any rate, Patty Loveless’ third appearance at the Crazy Horse Monday night was certainly a charmer.

In her last swing through the club, in May of 1990, Loveless’ voice had all the down-home beauty that also graces her person--a kind of wholesome loveliness where guys find themselves admiring her teeth --but it only rarely connected emotionally with her songs.

At Monday’s performance, though, a far stronger set of tunes more often gave her exquisite voice something worth assaying. Loveless may not threaten Emmylou Harris’ standing as the queen of country, but she proved herself fit to attend her court.

Like Harris, Loveless has a high, pure voice, which has found an ideal setting in the semi-acoustic arrangements of her excellent six-piece band. While, again, not in the same league with Harris’ phenomenal bluegrass-chomping Nash Ramblers, Loveless’ outfit is more distinctive than most touring country bands, and all the players have a fine feel for the delicate acoustic-electric shadings of their music.

The standout in the band is Tammy Rodgers, whose efforts on acoustic guitar, mandolin and fiddle set the mood for several songs. She and fellow guitarist Tim Hensley also lent splendid backup vocals to Loveless’ leads.

Much of Loveless’ set was devoted to light country-rock tunes from her five albums, including “Blue Side of Town,” “Blue Memories,” “On Down the Line,” “Chains,” and “I’m That Kind of Girl.” The songs were more melodically spiced than most of Nashville’s crossover pap, and her good-natured vocals and the band’s deft touch lent a Buddy Holly-like pop innocence to some of them.

Loveless brought a modicum of spirit to the songs--probably about as much as they deserved--making the contrast downright disarming when she’d launch into the set’s weightier ballads. The character and depth of her voice seemed suddenly to double when she tackled the Dallas Frazier-penned 1967 George Jones hit “If My Heart Had Windows” and the Dolly Parton/Porter Wagoner tune “The Pain of Loving You.”

Perhaps because her voice doesn’t have the lived-in, weather-checked quality of some of country’s ballad queens--it is not so easily expressive of the aches of love--it takes a greater effort for her to claim such a song as her own. But clearly, she held the pink slips to those two ballads, with upper-register efforts and sharp turns of phrase stirring the emotions. She also caught hold of Lucinda Williams’ Gram Parsons-like “The Night’s Too Long,” when her vocal ache was further lofted by Hensley’s close harmonies.

Other, lesser highlights included “Some Morning Soon,” as Loveless, Rodgers and Hensley grouped around a single microphone for the song’s keening bluegrass harmonies, and “I Won’t Gamble With Your Love,” given an old-timey creak by Rodgers’ fiddle sawing.

One song that should have been a standout, but was curiously flat, was Lyle Lovett’s “God Will.” Rather than the pious statement one might expect of a country song with that title, the song is instead a bitter rumination on when supreme love and romantic love diverge:

“Who keeps on loving you when you’ve been lying,

and saying things that ain’t what they seem?

Well God does, but I don’t.

God will, but I won’t.

And that’s the difference between God and me.”

A lyric that strong can benefit from a certain amount of understatement. But Loveless’ light treatment nearly trivialized the import of the song, making it a novelty rather than the very sad comment it is.