Scene of the Crying

Justin Trevino grows impressively as a Texas hard-country singer, and this, his fourth album of shuffles and ballads, is his best. His sweet, trembling voice has more color and his phrasing is less showy on this survey of emotional train wrecks. There's not much in the way of upbeat songs here: if the lead track "Two Empty Glasses" sets the scene, the succeeding title song (written by his steel player Dicky Overbey) cinches it. With only one other original (by fiddler Ernie Reed), Trevino draws on material by or associated with well-known writers and singers like Jack Greene, George Jones, Justin Tubb, Johnny Paycheck, and Bill Anderson, but the material is usually so obscure that he easily fashions it into his own statement. You won't find devastating story songs like "She Didn't Color Daddy" (first done by Wynn Stewart) anywhere else. If straight-ahead, heart-hitting honky-tonk is your cup of spirits, Trevino's your man. --John Morthland