ROCK-A-RAMA

We record reviewers get hundreds of singer-songwriter (hereafter referred to as SS) albums a month and it's real hard to pick favorites, even though you don't have to listen to any of the records since they all enclose lyrics sheets and they're all poets. But I think the best of the new crop of the SS is (Real) Ritchie Francis, who has straight blond hair, a fuzzy brown beard, and looks so sensitive you just know L-O-V-E is coming out of his pores. Dig (from the handwritten lyric sheet): �For all my. emmotions (sic)/ Beyond the scope of words/ I will use my music/ To express them.� I think this is what Bob Seger meant when he wrote �Heavy Music.� The album�s called Songbird and you can pick it up at your local decency rally.

Real Ritchie 'may be on top but coming up fast is Adam Miller, who looks just like Don McLean but makes that strolling violinist look impolite. Adam�s lp title is a stone groove, pardon my language: Who Would Give His Only Song Away. Actually it�s $4.98 but it�s the thought that counts. On Chelsea Records. Matrix number: CAe-1000. Don�t miss a trick. But look, Adam, there�re ten songs here, which one you giving away? And you�ve only got one, right? And they all sound alike and I�ve heard it before. To quote Adams: �But who hears?�