Shaken Not Stirred
On his third album, singer-piano thumper Phil Vassar has made a couple of wise choices. He brought his own band into the studio while spending more of his own studio time tickling the ivories. With entertaining and insightful piano ballads like "Gone by Dawn," "Amazing Grace," and the stirring personal anthem "Black and Whites," Vassar emerges as something of a contemporary country-pop answer toBilly Joel. He's a little less convincing on evanescent chart fodder like "What Happens in Vegas" and the lusty "I'll Take That as a Yes," but when he lets his obvious pop-rock influences roam free on the keyboard he sounds masterful and built to last.--Bob Allen