CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE

“JOHN ANDERSON” (Warner Bros.):: Maybe this isn’t the best country album of 1980, but I’ll take it over Willie Nelson’s supersessions, George Jones’s refurbished macho, and even Merle Haggard’s inspired revivalism. The songs fade on side two, but not since Hank Williams Jr. fell off his mountain and Gary Stewart fell off his barstool has anybody put so much vocal muscle into unadorned hard stuff.