Prayer of a Common Man (CD - 2008)

Recording information: Firehouse Recording Studios, Pasadena, CA; House Of Gain, Franklin, TN; Little Big Studio, Nashville, TN; Short Elvis Studio, Nashville, TN; SOund Kitchen, Franklin, TN; Starstruck, Nashville, TN; The Tin Ear, Nashville, TN.

While Nashville's Phil Vassar has been a fixture on the country music scene since 2000, this album--especially its single "This is My Life"--finds the singer-songwriter playing catchy piano pop with amiably self-assured lyrics and upbeat melodies that would feel right at home on a mid-period Billy Joel album.

The fourth album by Nashville singer-songwriter Phil Vassar, his first for new label Universal South, continues in the heartfelt tradition of its three predecessors. Vassar, who has penned hits for stars like Jo Dee Messina, Tim McGraw, and Alan Jackson, is a country classicist at heart, and songs like the first single "Love Is A Beautiful Thing" and "My Chevrolet" have the neo-traditionalist vibe of vintage George Strait. Other highlights include the earnest title track and the rollicking "Baby Rocks."

It's hard to call Phil Vassar's Prayer of a Common Man a concept album, as it contains no narrative, but it sure is conceptual, built upon the trials and travails of the common man in 2008, which naturally means there are plenty of passing references to Republicans and Democrats and the high price of gas. Vassar pumps Prayer full of everyman melodrama and easy nostalgia, supporting his conversational clichés with music that is country in marketing only, as he chooses to support his tales of the common man with songs that deliberately evoke John Mellencamp and Bob Seger -- quite literally so with the latter, as Vassar builds in allusions to "Night Moves" and "Roll Me Away" on "My Chevrolet," which plays as if penned for a year-long television ad campaign. He may aspire to Mellencamp and Seger, but his reliance on grandiose piano runs makes large sections of Prayer of a Common Man feel like the work of a Midwestern Billy Joel, especially as the first half of the album is heavy on overheated songs, designed to fill arenas but almost feeling better suited for a theatrical production. Things get a little looser as the album rolls on, as Vassar eases into a great little zydeco rocker called "Why Don't Ya" and indulges in some surprisingly effective psychedelia lite on the chorus of "It's Only Love," which recalls the better moments of Big Kenny. These tunes prove that Vassar is at his best when he doesn't try quite so hard. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

It's hard to call Phil Vassar's Prayer of a Common Man a concept album, as it contains no narrative, but it sure is conceptual, built upon the trials and travails of the common man in 2008, which naturally means there are plenty of passing references to Republicans and Democrats and the high price of gas. Vassar pumps Prayer full of everyman melodrama and easy nostalgia, supporting his conversational clichés with music that is country in marketing only, as he chooses to support his tales of the common man with songs that deliberately evoke John Mellencamp and Bob Seger -- quite literally so with the latter, as Vassar builds in allusions to "Night Moves" and "Roll Me Away" on "My Chevrolet," which plays as if penned for a yearlong television ad campaign. He may aspire to Mellencamp and Seger, but his reliance on grandiose piano runs makes large sections of Prayer of a Common Man feel like the work of a Midwestern Billy Joel, especially as the first half of the album is heavy on overheated songs, designed to fill arenas but almost feeling better suited for a theatrical production. Things get a little looser as the album rolls on, as Vassar eases into a great little zydeco rocker called "Why Don't Ya" and indulges in some surprisingly effective psychedelia lite on the chorus of "It's Only Love," which recalls the better moments of Big Kenny. These tunes prove that Vassar is at his best when he doesn't try quite so hard, but the problem with Prayer of a Common Man is that for the bulk of its running time he's trying entirely too hard, either to say something important or to relate to the common man, a paradox that ultimately sinks the record. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine minimize