Read Between the Lines

During the gulf war, newcomer Aaron Tippin made a splash with his debut single, ”You’ve Got to Stand for Something,” which struck a chord in a nation hopped up on patriotism. After that, his profile dropped as low as a casualty of war’s. Too bad. Although he may sound like an impossible hayseed — Tippin’s thick South Carolina accent renders ”can’t” as ”cain’t” — he’s one of the most intelligent of Nashville’s new singer-songwriters. On his newly released second album, Read Between the Lines, — with ”There Ain’t Nothin’ Wrong With the Radio,” an unabashed love song about a jalopy, and ”My Blue Angel,” where he emits a high-pitched howl of pain — Tippin has crafted songs of wit and woe with bull’s-eye directness, and he delivers them with a melodic verve that harkens back to the honky-tonk styles of the ’50s. He also knows a thing or two about sexual truths, describing them with the passion of a voyeur: When Tippin details his nights of anguish over a lost love in ”These Sweet Dreams,” you can almost see the sweat stains on the sheets. A