CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE

What’s made him the decade’s premiere country star artistically has been his disinclination to act like one—he’s never climbed on the Nashville assembly line like Skaggs and Strait and so many smaller fry. Until now. He goes for George’s intensity rather than Merle’s hang-loose, but he won’t convince you he thought these songs were special, and though this may mean the truth is still in him, don’t bet on it—not after he yanked the difficult-to-program album he’s got in the can.