BUDDY JEWELL
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BUDDY JEWELL/B>
"Help Pour Out The Rain"
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Buddy Jewell - Buddy Jewell (Columbia)
HH1/2 out of HHHHH
Buddy Jewell probably would have found an audience on his own. Blessed with a strong baritone, an innate ability to cut to a song's emotional core and a marquee smile, Mr. Jewell is as radio-ready as they come.
It's a shame reality television got a hold of him before Nashville could.
Mr. Jewell, winner of USA Network's Nashville Star competition, now has to contend with the bitter aftertaste many fans will associate with the 15-minute-factor, the curse of reality television stars.
A stronger album might have allowed him to break out of that mold and established him as the star that almost got away. Instead, he spends the lion's share of his self-titled debut rifling through country music's stylistic back pages, looting elements of Johnny Cash and Johnny Horton, Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard in a cut-and-paste pastiche of what music or television executives believe country music should sound like.
Even on the songs he helped write, including the greeting-card sweet first single, Help Pour Out the Rain, Mr. Jewell sounds like a man desperately trying on well-worn hats, trying to find the one that suits him best, and despairing to discover that Johnny and Waylon and Merle's hat fit them and them alone.
Much of the blame can be placed on producer Clint Black, who seems to find studio polish an acceptable substitute for emotional resonance. Many of the album's songs might have survived had they been afforded the room to breathe. Instead, the music is tweaked and twisted and compressed into shiny little boxes that leave no room for interesting mistakes or improvisational freedom.
Still, the album is not without merit. Mr. Jewell's voice is a miraculous instrument, and no amount of ill-advised studio chicanery seems able to steal its soulful timbre. There is also some unusually strong songwriting, by both Mr. Jewell and familiar Nashville faces Mr. Black, Thom Shepherd and Merle Haggard, who contributes his classic Today I Started Loving You Again.
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Buddy Jewell
SPECIAL
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Buddy Jewell just isn't the album Buddy Jewell should have made. Instead of studio gloss, so often used to disguise a lack of talent, he should have opted for a low-key approach, letting the arrangements and the natural power of his voice tell the stories.
But that, I guess, wouldn't have made good television.
ONLINE EXTRA
Buddy Jewell - Buddy Jewell You can hear a snippet of the song by calling Infoline at 442-4444, then dialing 8100.
Reach Steven Uhles at (706) 823-3626 or steven.uhles@augustachronicle.com
