The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 36

MUSIC CITY ENTERTAINMENT TODAY'S HOT SPOTS Calendar TV aim rocks in 'Gome On Over 3 I i Entertainment OUR PICKS Some folks call Rodney Car-rington the "Garth Brooks of That's a tall order for any comedian to fill, but Caning-ton has appeared on such TV shows as Evening at the Improv and TNN's Comedy Roundup, and he has a comedy CD due in early 1998 on Mercury Nashville. Carrington will perform at the fourth annual Laughter for the Children benefit at 6:30 tonight at Zanies, 2025 Eighth Ave. S. The event will benefit the Monroe Harding Children's Home, a local, private, nonprofit residential facility that serves abused, neglected and-or abandoned adolescents. Along with Carrington's comedy, the benefit will include a buffet dinner and silent and live auctions.

Roger Barnett and Tennessean columnist Catherine Darnell will serve as auctioneers. Tickets are $35 advance, available by calling 298-5573 before 5 p.m. today, or $45 at the door. For other information, call Zanies at 269-0221. Folkie Malcolm Holcombe has one of those l-just-swal-lowed-sand voices that's just this side of, yep, Bob Dylan.

Hol-combe's words, as displayed on his new Geffen Records album A Hundred Lies, aren't too shabby, and neither are his guitar and dobro picking. Holcombe opens for Jo Lynn Daniel at 9 p.m. today at 12 Porter, 114 12th Ave. N. Information: 254-7236.

Tonight at the Boardwalk Cafe, 4114 Nolensville Road Epiphone writers' night with Mike Judi Roggers featuring Bob Hatter, Julie K. and Jo-dene, 6:45 p.m.; Savana Rose, 7:30 p.m.; Songwriters' contest with Elliott Pacettl, Wade James Taylor swaps At By TOM ROUND Staff Writer Shania Twain Come On Over 7j Mercury president Luke Lewis was probably being a little overly optimistic when he predicted that Shania Twain's new Come On Over album would top Garth Brooks' No Fences as the best-selling non-greatest-hits album in country music history. It should do well, but frankly Our Ratings classic excellent good mediocre poor it's not as boldly inviting as her pre decessor The Woman In Me. Twain takes the same basic tack, providing energy and lots of rock references so many that it often doesn't feel like a country album. Honey, I'm Home infuses the same tough Queen backbeat that bolstered Any Man Of Mine, the opening Man! I Feel Like A Woman! is built on a sports cheer, and I'm Holdin' On To Love (To Save My Life) hinges on Paul Leim's constant shuffle drumbeat.

The rock influences range from Paula Cole whispers to Def Lep-pardBryan Adams background vocals, from guitarist Dann Huffs Frampton-like talk box work to several quietly spoken openings that sound like the needless filler from a Janet Jackson album. Once in a while, the sentiments are important She turns flight from domestic abuse into an upbeat workout in Black Eyes, Blue Tears and threads social issues with fairy tales and a reality check on a broken heart in When. Mostly, thoughts an album built on attitude and a desire for fun. A bouncy fiddle riff, fulfilled by four fiddlers, dominates Dont Be Stupid (You Know 1 Love You), Joey Miskulin's accordion produces a moderate Cajun feel in the title track, and the mistitled first single, Love Gets Me Every Time (which should be named Gone And Done It), boasts just about the catchiest chorus in country music this year. Twain puts 16 songs into one hour, quite the bargaintiejctto the usual 10-song, 35-minute country album.

It's a raucous outing, it pushes country's boundaries just a little more than The Woman In Me, but it's not quite as stark and defiant as that 1995 album. Mindy. McCready If I Don't Stay Tlu Night A fellow journalist tried to convince me earlier this year that Mindy McCready will, over the long run, have more significance for country music than Shania Twain. I remain unconvinced, but there are certainly similarities between their approaches. Mindy McCready Like Twain, McCready has a pierced navel she doesn't mind showing.

Like Twain, McCready is not afraid to dash long-established female country traditions and flaunt her beauty. Like Twain, McCready is musically grappling with the continuing re-definition of womanhood. In fact, in What Ifl Do, the opening song on her second album, Ifl Dont Stay The Night, McCready sounds remarkably like Twain. The track is dominated by a grinding, rock-based guitar, and McCready throws in numerous un-sung vocals mumbling under her breath, squealing in the second verse and laughing in the final bars. But What If Do does more to set up the thematic content of the rest of the album than to position McCready as some kind of Twain clone.

In a manner of speaking, it's a 10-years-down-the-line extension of K.T. Oslin's 80's Ladies, as McCready searches for the "90s answers to femininity. Both What Ifl Do and the title track find her heart and mind wrestling over whether to stay over with a romantic partner, Oh Romeo has her debating love against obsession, and For A Good Time Call has her waiting impatiently for a phone 1 1 1 KC RIVEF1GAIE EIGHT ntvrnrjtir mau wcKomViGHT raMttKsowim "1 V- 1 i IMEd 11 CAAMtKESI If HERMITAGE II i tiAmmr.uAii It if Comedian Rodney Carrington takes the stage at Zanies at the fourth annual Laughter for the Children benefit at 6:30 tonight Richards, Cheryl Watson and Shawn Colvard, 8 p.m.; Ronnie Tidwell, Blake Allen Smith, Don McNatt and Bud Casey, 8:15 p.m. Information: 832-5104. Chuck Schlacter and Pamela Dent play at 6:30 p.m.

today at F. Scott's, 2210 Crest-moor. Information: 269-5861. VARIOUS Bill McConnell plays at 7:30 p.m. today at the Bunganut Pig, 1143 Columbia Franklin.

Information: 794-4777. Tonight at the Gibson Cafe Guitar 8-A Broadway Lisa Briggs, 7 p.m.; Jonathan Yugken, 11 p.m. In- formation: 742-6343. Who's jamming at the Jam-min' Java's writer's night tonight? Swan Burrus, Lynette Ashrim, Nathan O'Neal and Woody Bradshaw. Music starts at 7:30 p.m.

Cover is $5. The club is located at 117-B Fifth Ave. N. Information: 591-4888. Laura Darling the Hurrj- canes whip up their music at 7 p.m.

today at the 1 6th Avenue' Cafe, 118 16th Ave. in the wax museum mall. Information: This day in music Cany Simon marries James Taytor in her Manhattan apartment. They separated in 1982 and later divorced son in 1962, six days after he was born in Italy. Hugh worked with his father on the ries In the Heat of the Night andXT Detective Lonnie Jamison The elc der O'Connor is perhaps best known for his role as Archie Bunker on the TV sitcom AH In The Family.

i mmn i HHYWfjAIRUESTOWfq 1:45 4:10 7:15 9:25 "TWO DAY ADVANCE" "TICKET SALES AVAKABIi" KNOW WHAT V0U DID SWITCHBACK (R) 1 40420705 945 LAST SUMMER (R) 2:10 4 30 7:20 945 TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE AR FORCE ONI (R) 30 7:15 MEN IN BLACK (PG-13) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE (R) 1 25 4:15 7 05 9 55 SEVEN YEARS IN TUET (PG-13 4 3 55 HOUSE Of VE5(R) 1:20 4 10 7 00 9 50 ROCKETMAN (PG) 2 15 4 25 710 2 00 4 20 7 10 9 20 ALH LESS THAN OBDHAmfl 2:30 4 40 7:40 1000 KISS THE GIRLS (R) 2 05 4:40 7:35 1 0:05 I KNOW WHAT V0U DID LAST SUMMER (R) SHOWN ON TWO SCREENS 1) 1:20 4 00 7:00 9:10 2) 2 10 4 30 7 50 10:00 L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (R) 1:30 4 20 7:101000 THE EDGE (R) 9 20 PUVlNlG00(R SOUL FOOD (R) 2 20 4 35 7 40 9 55 KISS Irit filRLstR) SHOWN ON TWO SCREENS 1) 1:404:15 7:00 9:35 2) 210 445 7:30 10 05 1 50 4 15 7:10 9 35 INAND0UT(PG-13), 1:55 4 00 7 25 9 30 RED CORNER (R) 2 00 4 35 7:30 10 00 The Edge r) 1 30 4 10 710 9-40 LA. CONFIDENTIAL (A) 1-20 4:10 6 50 9 50 ThE FULL MotiTV (R) 2 30 4 50 7:20 9 50 RED CORNER (R) 4 30 7:30 10 05 A LK LESS THAN OOMRY 4:35 7:35 9 50 I KNOW WHAT YOU DI0 BOOGIE NIGHTS (R) LAST SUMMER (R) 4:20 7:20 9:40 400 7 00 1005 AtD CfiRNEA (R) DEVIL ADVOCATE (R) 4 05 7:05 9:55 4 15 715 945 GAttACA(PG-l5r 4:25 7:25 940 SWITCHBACK R) 4:15 7:15 9:55 FAIRY TAL A TRUE STORY (PG) 4 20 7:20 9 30 ROCKETMAN (PG) 4:25 7:25 DEVIL'S ADVOCATE (R) DTI THE EDGE (R) 4 20 7:20 9 45 4:107:10 10:00 SE VEN YEARS It TIBET (Pt lll 405 7:05 9 50 ROCKftMAk I (RSI 4 05 7:05 SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET (Pt-13) 4:00 7 O0 10O0 A. CONFIDENTIAL (R) 9:45 mm THE EDGE (A) I 7 1 Carroll O'Connor tells story for USA Network Shania Twain This week's lineup To hear a sampling of the albums reviewed here, call The Tennessean's Source24 line, a free 24-hour news and information service, at 242-2424. Punch in category code 1055 to hear Shania Twain's Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You), Mindy Mc-Cready's What If I Do, Angie Debbie Winans' Love Wont and Part Six of Tone Patrol's Thin Air.

call from some guy she gave her number to. Even in the "90s, it often does not work in reverse. What's particularly different from Oslin's 80s Ladies is a generational thing. Oslin grew up under the old set of rules, and the '80s lady accepted that her independence probably cost her a shot at real love. McCready, 30 years younger, believes the two can co-exist.

While McCready doesn't sound like Twain after the opening track, she's essentially delivering the same message. Tone Patrol Thin Air No one ever accused Dave Pomeroy of being normal. The Nashville bass player, who's worked with Don Williams and Trisha Year-wood among countless others, has a fascination for offbeat music forms. Last year's Basses Loaded album featured music made only on the bass guitar. And Tone Patrol represents a group of musicians hinged together through experimental "momen-tal," Pomeroy calls it music.

Thin Air consists of five musicians who gathered periodically over a four-year period to play live at Douglas Corner, Ace of Clubs and the ExitIn. All the music is improvised, and 11 different performances have been pieced together to form a seamless 45-minute journey into the unpredictable. Much of Thin Air has a Jetsons-meet-the-jungle quality to it It's fu- RvAvC NO PASSES OR DISCOUNTS f2 1 sexual issues that most definitely involve choice. Musically, Bold is an excellent album. Watch What 1 Tell You is quaintly soulful, Never Gonna hinges on an enchanting, hypnotic groove and complex harmonies, while the ballad Love Wont employs thick, Janet Jackson-like harmonies and a moving chorus.

It's very clearly a modern, hip-hop-informed album, though there are moments particularly the clipped strings in Not Natural that display a 70s foundation. But this album also fails to recognize a spiritual truth that affects every Christian album: There are so many beliefs within Christianity that it's wise to avoid doctrine or dogma. Let's face it, some people believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God, others believe it was inspired by Him, but flawed because imperfect human beings carried out the work. Each of those viewpoints is legitimate, and they lead to different interpretations. The Winans unfortunately have moments where they're on the attack, whether it's against gays in Not Natural or against people with AIDS in Never Gonna.

They probably don't mean to be that way, but it comes off in that manner, and it discolors an album that could have been really great Christian artists tend to see their work as ministry, but it's important to remember you cant minister to people you've just insulted. There's a reason you rarely hear heavy-handed messages on the radio. NO PASSES OR cowmro cumin 1 DISCOUNTS A Angie and Debbie Winans turistic and spacey, yet swampy and seemingly dangerous. It's tough to describe, because it moves in so many directions. Vacuous, industrial rhythms blend with jazz guitar chording in section One, Nine elicits a middle Eastern classicism, and Three is a veritable electronic swamp, with screaming animals and tribal drums giving way to synthesized bugs.

The closest Thin Air ever gets to mainstream music comes in Six, when Sam Bush plucks the mandolin in a light jazz motif that kicks into a rhythmic intensity. And even that track begins with a texture that can only be described as a war dance on the assembly line. It's daunting if you try to understand it, but if you just, try to feel it, Tone Patrol can be eerily rewarding. Angie Debbie Winans Bold Bold is, of course, the album that ticked off the gay community. The song Not Natural includes one verse that takes a shot at ABC-TV's Ellen and the increasing acceptance gays are finding in society.

Angie and Debbie Winans' spokesmen insist that they had no intention of attacking people, though it certainly comes off that way. Many gays and lesbians believe their sexual orientation is an innate characteristic over which they have no choice. The Winans lump it with abortion, pornography and teen pregnancy lETStreF f-f-p1 lUTaUl XC.WMf Mil" 'I BFUEVUt EIGHT 1 COM. 8PBWGS GAtlf rowtuNMUM wcHMTeioHt wmmcamnn WYHflSOttOlO The Hollywood Reporter LOS ANGELES USA Network is developing The Carroll O'Connor Story, with O'Connor scheduled to star and direct. The Carroll O'Connor Story will deal primarily with the loss of O'Connor's adopted son Hugh and the actor's crusade, following his son's 1995 suicide after a long battle with cocaine addiction, against Harry Perzigian, the man convicted of furnishing Hugh O'Connor with drugs.

O'Connor defended himself successfully this year against a slander suit brought by Perzigian, based on comments O'Connor made about Perzigian's responsibility for his son's death. With support from Partnership for a Drug Free America, public service announcements will run during the movie and an 800 number will be posted on the screen. O'Connor adopted his only NOW PLAYING Kit IWTW toil WW WYWKONGlt cOavmUGUtMMtf IFllEVUE IKiHT FOUR nv I IN AND OUT (PG-13) 4-35 7 35 9:25 9:20 In AMb 0UT(K- 4 30 7:30 IheMcemaxerir) 7 22 5i KISS THE GIRLS (R) 4 25 7 25 10 00.