Conway Twitty

Twitty has grown artistically, which I guess is admirable in a forty-three-year-old country singer. I can only guess because although I'm glad he's traded big-ballad stolidity for honky-tonk stretch and catch, I'm not so glad he's writing his own songs. Too often he muddles country's adult themes with the teen romanticism of his early rockabilly success, and sometimes he's just inept--in "The Games That Daddies Play" a seven-year-old makes a speech that could have been written by the seven-year-old's therapist, while in "Don't Cry Joni" there are plot details that could have been devised by a seven-year-old. (Grade: B)