Make Up in Love (Atlantic, 1999)

The Doug Stone song "Gone Out of My Mind"on last year's "Tribute to Tradition" was pure, undiluted and unpolluted, stone country ¡ i.e., the stuff you don¦t hear on country radio very often.

On his Atlantic debut, he gives us Stone country, a more accessible sound that does not come off "too country for country" yet is still engaging largely because of Stone¦s voice ¡ soft with built-in teardrops. Stone specializes in the sort of love ballads that prompt young couples out on a Saturday night to put down their pool sticks and slow rub real close on the dance floor. Songs like "Not Me," "Deeper Than That" and "Oh Moon" are heartfelt and moving enough to make even the most insensitive slug look like a deep-feeling feller to his sweetheart.

Other standouts include "A Room Without a View," "The Heart Holds On" (a duet with Leslie Satcher) and the title track, which tells the tale of another young couple who decide to spend their lives together. They probably fell in love after slow dancing to a Doug Stone song.