Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Like many a devoted music fan, veteran songwriter/popmeister Jules Shear enjoys sifting through his record collection to make compilations of favorites to listen to in his car. When it dawned on him that selections from his car-comp hit-list would also make a pretty fair covers album, this warm, informed collection of Shear performances quickly followed. Shear's innate pop savvy (he penned "All Through the Night" for Cyndi Lauper and the Bangles' "If She Knew What She Wants" is immediately tipped by his buoyant revival of the largely forgotten Dave Clark Five chestnut "I've Got to Have a Reason" and Dylan's Shot of Love oddity, "In the Summertime." If the latter seems an unlikely choice, it's but a telling clue to the warm, inclusive pop eclecticism Shear informs the entire collection with. With a voice that's a more soulfully expressive version of Jackson Browne's, the veteran spins this collection about a diverse musical axis that spans the roots, country and r&b of Woody Guthrie's "1913 Massacre," Roger Miller's bittersweet "Husbands and Wives" and Joe Tex's gritty "It Ain't Gonna Work" on one pole and such underexposed pop jewels as Brian Wilson's "Guess I'm Dumb," "Be Good To Me" by Todd Rundgren, and Dusty Springfield's "Breakfast in Bed" on the other. If Shear's soulman ambitions get the best of him on James Brown's "Ain't That a Groove" and elsewhere, they're still infused with a sense of playfulness that's often downright infectious. --Jerry McCulley
Sayin' Hello to the Folks,Jules Shear,Valley,Adult Alternative Pop/Rock,Pop,Pop/Rock,Rock,Rock/Pop,Singer/Songwriter,United States of America
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