Back in the Sixties, Vern Gosdin, an Alabama-born singer/songwriter, helped put the country in country rock. In his early thirties at the time, he played and recorded with former Byrds Chris Hillman and Gene Clark, and his lonesome-sounding "There Must Be Someone" appeared on the Byrds' album Ballad of Easy Rider. Some of his subsequent solo work sounded bland, but on the 1983 If You're Gonna Do Me Wrong (Do It Right) and the 1984 There Is a Season, Gosdin unsheathed his cutting edge; on the new Time Stood Still, the edge is sharper still.

While the rich, multilayered production emphasizes the warmth of his Don Williams-deep voice, Gosdin's phrasing echoes the exquisitely tortured sound of George Jones, but the very robustness of his voice makes the woundedness more poignant. Especially on the glacier-tempo dirges that have become his trademark – Time Stood Still is an inadvertently appropriate title – the overall effect is of total immersion in hard-country heartbreak.

"For a Minute There," "What a Price I've Paid" and "Was It Just the Wine" are undiluted lump-in-the-throat country: as Gosdin compulsively tours the ruins of various romances, Pete Drake's steel guitar wells up out of the mix like a sob too long repressed. Sensibly, though, Gosdin has included some leavening. He's revived the uptempo warhorse "Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (and Loud, Loud Music)," which used to be prized by citybilly bands for its camp value. Gosdin sings it straight, and he manages to make the honky-tonking of a floozy who'll "never make a wife to a home-loving man" seem regrettable rather than laughable. Even better, he's resurrected "Jesus, Hold My Hand," a 1930s gospel hand-clapper. The intricate part-singing and foursquare pianopounding suggest the joyous rigor of an old-time camp meeting.

Gosdin is one of the few contemporary country singers to put gospel songs on records meant to be heard by the godly and the ungodly alike. Whatever the spiritual benefits may be, the musical benefits are clear: the neglected white-gospel tradition has a lot more to offer than wimpy pieties. And Gosdin's decision for Christ, a little quixotic from a marketing standpoint, is a good omen in these days of crossover country: someone this upfront about his religion isn't likely to start selling out his music. (RS 456)

DAVID GATES