Trying To Put It Together

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY

PERFORMER: GARTH BROOKS

ALBUM: IN PIECES

LABEL: LIBERTY

THE BOTTOM LINE: A high-spirited rock-'n'-roll country album is tainted by a mean-spirited swipe at the underclass.

In his own indecisive way, Garth Brooks has become a sort of Ross Perot of country music. First he suggests he may quit performing. Then he says he's back in. Now, on his new album, In Pieces, Brooks has made one of his worst decisions by recording a misguided anthem titled American Honky-Tonk Bar Association. In this song, over a beat as rambunctious as a mechanical bull, this most favored of country stylists asks listeners to join with the "hardhat, gunrack, achin'-back, over-taxed, flag-wavin' fun-lovin' crowd," especially if they're upset when their "dollar goes to all of those standing in a welfare line."

Exactly what this country needs: a millionaire singing cowboy dropping stray lines that castigate folks on public assistance. Celebrating yahoos and their gunracks is a tasteless idea, conjuring up images of class warfare, and the usually savvy Brooks should know better. What led this otherwise appealing country singer into such a display of musical demagoguery can only confound his fans.

American Honky-Tonk Bar Association is all the more unfortunate since the rest of this album is so well conceived and executed, covering country, blues and full-out rock. Standing Outside the Fire, a song about living life to the fullest, begins with a catchy guitar riff that would be at home on many noncountry pop albums. "Life is not tried it is merely survived/ If you're standing outside the fire," sings Brooks over a percussion break that sounds nearly African. In concerts and in interviews, Brooks is an intense, full- throttle performer, and the song manages to captures this bustling energy. The Night I Called the Old Man Out has the album's best lyrics, telling the story of a troubled family in which each son, when he comes of age, fights his father in a rite of passage: "The blood came from my mouth and nose/ But the tears came from ((Dad's)) eyes."

Other songs also demonstrate Brooks' impressive range. Ain't Going Down (Til the Sun Comes Up) is a country-rock romp about a daughter out past curfew; One Night a Day starts with some Billy Joel-like piano stroking and later fades into a soulful saxophone solo. But through all this, it's hard to forget Brooks' cheap shot at people "standing in a welfare line."

This from the guy who had a hit song called Friends in Low Places and who on his previous album, The Chase, sang, "When the last child cries for a crust of bread . . . When there's shelter over the poorest head/ We shall be free." In Pieces is well named; only parts of this album are up to Brooks' fine standard.