*** Garnet Rogers

NIGHT DRIVE

(Snow Goose)

Intense coffeehouse folk meets arena rock's noisy guitar at times here. Has Rogers been listening to old Fleetwood Mac LPs? Despite the huge Canadian's knack for finding unusual stunners by other writers -- this time Greg Brown's droll, erotic "Jesus and Elvis" -- his recent albums have emphasized his own vivid, passionate writing, which is laden with the fears and courage of hard-hit ordinary people. Eschewing self-centered acoustic folkie drivel, he shows a woman running from a man she wishes she didn't love in "Never So Lonely," with hovering traces of Robert Mitchum's tattoo'd harbinger of evil in Night of the Hunter.

Too bad Rogers's powerful baritone hit those golden tones more consistently on 1994's live Summer Lightning. But he's traveled a long way since moving from the shadows as violinist for brother Stan. As with Ralph and Carter Stanley, the older sibling's death has propelled the younger one to come into his own. (Write to Snow Goose at Woodburn Road, RR 1, Hannon, Ontario, Canada L0R 1P0.)

-- Bruce Sylvester

(Garnet Rogers plays Club Passim next Thursday, January 30.)