I've come to lead you from this wasted land," Darden Smith promises in the mystical song "2000 Years," and if this exultant record is any indication, Smith may indeed prove a savior for thinking persons' roots rock.

Smith sprang from the same Austin scene that produced Nanci Griffith and Lyle Lovett, and his 1987 Epic debut, Darden Smith, was a modest country effort. Then 1989 brought Evidence, Smith's heralded collaboration with the Bible's Boo Hewerdine, and that album proved to have a liberating effect. With Trouble No More, Smith has let his hair down, literally and figuratively, taking a turn for Mellencamp-Petty pop country, where he seems much more at home.

Working with two producers – Dwight Yoakam cohort Pete Anderson and Martin Lascelles, who was at the helm on Evidence – Smith has found a crisp yet organic acoustic-guitar sound that can rock hard ("Listen to My Own Voice"), be contemplative ("Bottom of a Deep Well") or reach for gospel-like spirituality ("Trouble No More"). His warm, wistful voice handles gutsy and pretty passages with equally natural self-assurance.

As a lyricist, Smith is the perfect bard for these troubled, recessionary times, spinning what might be termed intimate anthems – sing-along narratives of individual striving. In "Fall Apart at the Seams," he sings, "I spent most of my life trying to wear another man's clothes/The collar's too tight and the shoes they hurt my soul." In "Johnny Was a Lucky One," a Vietnam vet wishes he'd died in combat like his buddy, instead of having to face reality: "I said my prayers/And I'm sad to say they came true."

The album is not without its faults. Too often Smith relies on a clichéd chorus, as in "Ashes to Ashes" or "All the King's Horses" – but damn, they're catchy. He also has an occasional problem following through on his ideas thoroughly enough; the John Hiatt-like adventure "Frankie & Sue" lacks the twist that a writer of Hiatt's caliber would have added at the end. But these quibbles are minor. If Trouble No More gets a hearing, this Texan could well have a gusher on his hands. (RS 599)

DAVID HANDELMAN