POP MUSIC REVIEW : The Heart of Stone Is Breaking : The country singer created teary-eyed magic, but diluted Nashville fare crept into his set all too often at the Crazy Horse.

If they really did put warning labels on sad country songs, as Doug Stone’s current hit, “Warning Labels” recommends, Stone would have found himself stickered many times during his show Monday at the Crazy Horse Steak House.

During the high points of his 65-minute set, when he put his expressive baritone to work on such tear-jerkers as Harlan Howard’s “These Lips Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye,” Stone showed he could go sob for sob with any of the legendary heartbreak kings of country’s cry-in-your-beer tradition. Unfortunately, all too often Stone’s set recalled a less-compelling country tradition: that of recording facile but shallow material cranked out in the Nashville song mills.

During his 21-song set, Stone diluted the impact of such well-written gems as “These Lips” and his morbid but powerful first hit “I’d Be Better Off (in a Pine Box)” with such featherweight material as the inanely topical “Warning Labels” and the just plain sappy “Come In Out of the Rain.” Looking for substance in Stone’s song list was like trying to find vitamins at the average fast-food joint.

In contrast to fellow country crooner George Strait, who props up his fluffy repertoire by doing Western swing and honky-tonk classics in concert, Stone stuck almost exclusively to songs from his latest album, “From the Heart.” A couple of well-placed Hank Williams or Merle Haggard tunes would have added some much-needed grit to Stone’s set.

Even though Stone is best known for his romantic ballads, Monday he deftly interspersed the slow songs with an almost equal number of uptempo tunes. Consequently, in spite of all the sad songs, Stone managed to infuse the evening with an upbeat feeling. He proved to be as energetic a performer on the fast numbers as he was an emotional singer on the sad ones. Unlike such country balladeers as Strait and Randy Travis, who are as active on stage as your average fire hydrant, Stone was in constant motion on the rockers. He pulled out some nifty dance steps and even borrowed a few moves from Michael Jackson.

Stone, however, undercut his better moves by his unfortunate insistence on pantomiming every word in the lyric. This tendency reached a nadir when Stone attempted to illustrate the line “I’m kicking myself” in “Why Didn’t I Think of That,” from his “From the Heart” album.

Stone’s six-piece band was largely confined to reproducing the sound of the records. The only time Stone let the musicians really step out as soloists was during the band introductions. At that time, each musician played a snippet of the most cliched number imaginable for his instrument. Naturally, the lead guitarist cranked out the famous introductory riff of the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” and the fiddle player launched into a few bars of--what else?--”Orange Blossom Special.”

Such elements were particularly frustrating because, during the best moments, Stone showed that he was capable of magic. Just as George Jones’ amazing vocals turned the ridiculously sentimental “He Stopped Loving Her Today” into a classic, Stone’s understated but powerful singing on “I’d Be Better Off (in a Pine Box)” made that dangerously self-pitying number incredibly touching.

The way Stone was able to balance the sad stuff with high jinx hinted that, with stronger material and a more polished performance, he could become one of country’s most effective entertainers.