A soccer dad with a song in his heart

Greg Trooper may be thought of as a songwriter's songwriter in music circles and as a splendid tunesmith to his fans. But to his 7-year-old son, he is sometimes just a ride to soccer practice.

A late ride to soccer practice.

Greg Trooper doesn't seem to be too upset that his work hasn't gotten mainstream notice. He's just happy being on the road.

"Dad, they're already practicing," sighs young Jack Trooper.

Father Trooper tells his boy to run out there and start kicking and everything will be fine. It's all in a day's work for a soccer dad who doubles as one of Nashville's best-kept singer-songwriting secrets.

In addition to his 16-year recording career, Trooper, 46, has had his songs recorded by such diverse talents as Steve Earle, Vince Gill and Billy Bragg. His name is on the list of artists influenced by Townes Van Zandt, John Prine and Willie Nelson.

DETAILS

Greg Trooper will perform at 9 p.m. Friday at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk. Tickets are $15. Call 713-528-5999.

His devotees are a loyal group. There are dense pockets of them, ranging from New Jersey to as far away as Italy and in music hubs like Houston, where songwriting is a respected craft. Friday Trooper returns to his Bayou City home, McGonigel's Mucky Duck, where he will be welcomed like a native.

About the only thing Trooper hasn't done is score a major radio hit. His year-old album, Straight Down Rain, doesn't look like it will buck that trend, which is the FM dial's loss.

Trooper doesn't seem to be heartbroken by the lack of mainstream notice, as long his songs get enough attention to keep him on the road.

A blend of folk and rock, the debut effort for Eminent Records (the label forged by Emmylou Harris) is an audio road map of the East and the South.

"I'm not a household name, and I'm working a hard-workin' life, but at the end of the day I feel awfully lucky," Trooper says. "I am fortunate that my work is in music."

A product of the Jersey shore, Trooper has had the benefit of absorbing influences from many of the finest coves of regional music in the United States and adding them to his own experience. In his youth he would make his way to New York as much as possible to play in Greenwich Village and see such songwriters as Merle Haggard and Patti Smith.

He was in the crowd at George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh benefit and, like every Jerseyite, has his own "brushes with the Boss" stories, the Boss, of course, being Bruce Springsteen.

"In the early-'70s all my friends worked at this record store in Red Bank, N.J., when Bruce walked in one day," Trooper says. "He walked right up to the W's and bought a Tom Waits record.

"It made us all smile because Bruce and his guys were listening to something we would have bought."

A growing talent for guitar and an interest in folk, bluegrass and country led Trooper to Austin in the late '70s. He was just in time to catch the singer-songwriter renaissance anchored by Van Zandt, Nelson and Guy Clark.

Regional variety can be heard on Straight Down Rain. The cool, early electric poems of Bob Dylan are represented on Sometimes It Takes a Hurricane, while You Love Your Broken Heart is definitely pulled from the floorboards of Austin's old Liberty Lunch -- or maybe Houston's Old Quarter.

"When I start writing songs, I do think about the way Guy or Townes put songs together," Trooper says. "My music has evolved with all of them, but you can never take the New York out of me. I've always gravitated to that sound Dylan almost single-handedly created."

Trooper recorded his debut album, We Won't Dance, in 1986 and caught his first songwriting break three years later when fast-rising country star Gill recorded the title track for his album When I Call Your Name.

The album was a country chart-topping breakthrough for Gill, but Trooper's song was not among the hit singles. Several other artists have since recorded Trooper songs. In 1991 Bragg covered the title track to Trooper's second album, Everywhere. More recently Earle recorded Little Sister,