Of all the cool new country stars, expect Randy Travis to last the longest. George Strait has everything but radar: you can't be Merle Haggard and Eddy Arnold. Ricky Skaggs has chops, but he's only one out of two in the high-and-lonesome department. Dwight Yoakam may be for real, but how will he wear? There's no telling what he'll look like with the three-inch jowls of a grade-A Nashville survivor. Next to John Anderson (already in the pantheon, and hence no longer qualifying as a new star), Randy Travis, winner of this year's Academy of Country Music's Top New Male Vocalist award, is as good as we've got.

Yes, he sounds like Lefty Frizzell – nasal from too many rainy nights. And some of the songs, in particular the title track, capture the same good-natured loser. But Travis looks great (plenty of jowl space on that lean young jaw) and sings cheating songs with an uncommonly modern ambivalence. "No Place Like Home" establishes and subverts its cliché like many a good weeper but rejects irony in favor of a sweeter, stronger tone.

"Messin' with My Mind" keeps the humor dry enough to itch, and "1982" is an obvious modern country hit on a par with Strait's singles "You Look So Good in Love" and "The Chair." "On the Other Hand" is this album's killer, though. A delicious conceit deliciously rendered, it's right up there with Gary Stewart's best. Travis may not have the scars yet to challenge Willie or John or Hank Jr., but Storms of Life is one hell of a start. (RS 483)

DAVITT SIGERSON