A Little Bit Of Everything In Tacoma Dome Country Show

Alabama is to country music what New Kids on the Block are to rock - they're wildly popular but don't get a lot of respect.

The country-rock group, headlining tonight at the Tacoma Dome along with Clint Black and Lorrie Morgan, has been the best-selling band in country music for more than a decade. Virtually every single they put out races to No. 1 on the country chart, and their albums sell in the multimillions. They've corralled lots of awards in the country field, but more for selling records than for memorable music.

In this new traditionalist era artists such as Randy Travis, George Strait, Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Clint Black are the people hard-core country fans point to with pride, along with active veterans such as Willie Nelson, George Jones and Merle Haggard. Alabama is seen as a lot of fun, because of its pop-rock style and lively tunes, but it's music is hardly classic country.

Alabama's slick songs celebrate working people and country cliches. In its videos you're likely to see a hard-workin' man hop off his plow, gather up the wife and kids and jump into a pickup to head for a hoedown where there's clog-dancers and fiddlers and old fellers in overalls. Alabama's music is for city slickers with country fantasies.

On its new album, Alabama gets on the environmental bandwagon. The title cut, ``Pass It On Down,'' links the burning of the rain forests with the pollution of the swimming hole in the band's

headquarters town of Fort Payne, Ala. It's a rousing country-rock song the band often uses to open its concerts. The band's current hit is ``Jukebox On My Mind,'' a tribute to the old-time country stars who inspire it.

Clint Black is the hottest new star in country music since Randy Travis. The Texas native's debut album from 1989, ``Killin' Time,'' is the first country LP to top 2 million in sales since Travis' 1987 smash, ``Always & Forever,'' which has surpassed the 4 million mark.

Black burst on the scene with his first single, ``A Better Man,'' a sardonic look at a failed relationship that shot to the top of charts and has become a contemporary-country classic. The album produced four other No. 1 hits, including ``Killin' Time,'' ``Nobody's Home,'' ``Walking Away'' and ``Nothing's New.''

Black has a knack for writing believable country songs that reflect deep feelings, as well as convey a sense of humor and fun. His new album, ``Put Yourself In My Shoes,'' released just three days ago, is a worthy successor to ``Killin' Time,'' with a balance of heart-tugging and foot-stomping tunes.

His skill at country songwriting is evident in lines like ``This nightlife's beatin' the daylights out of me'' (from ``This Nightlife'') and in rhyming ``bar stool'' with ``damn fool'' in ``A Heart Like Mine.'' His comparison of the landscape with his broken heart in ``The Gulf of Mexico'' is nothing short of brilliant.

Lorrie Morgan, opens the show. She brings a bit of glamour to country, with her short-cropped blond hair a la Madonna. The widow of country star Keith Whitley, her current hit is a duet with Whitley called `` 'Til a Tear Becomes a Rose,'' off of his last album.

Her own debut album, ``Leave the Light On,'' released shortly before Whitley's death in May 1989 from an alcohol overdose, gives Reba McEntire a run for her money as country's leading sob sister. The album is full of laments of love lost, highlighted by the rocking ``Trainwreck of Emotion.''

Showtime is 8 p.m. Tickets are $20.