If you add a fiddle solo to a Hall & Oates song from the ‘70s, does that magically transform it into a country song? Honestly, no, it doesn’t. But in today’s artificial country market, musical honesty is no longer an essential. Jimmy Wayne’s cover of “Sara Smile” certainly smells like a deceptive ploy to attract middle-aged female music fans – particularly those that still fondly recall ‘70s soft rock hits – to this relatively new country singer. Jimmy Wayne steadfastly takes the mellow route with this new studio collection, as most of these songs find the crooner fulfilling the sensitive balladeer role much of the time.

One also gathers that Wayne is convinced women today are looking for transparent men of their word. He opens with the pledge, “Things I Believe”, and then upholds long-lasting relational fidelity with “Just Knowing You Love Me”.  Yet if Wayne’s assumptions are accurate, women are also searching for guys ready and willing to make promises they can’t honestly keep. When Wayne offers the gift, “every drop of every dream belongs to you,” you can nearly picture the singer handing over his Man Card to his gal friend at the door. But partners actually need much lower expectations because saying you’ll give a girl everything sounds great in theory (and in a song), but simply doesn’t work in real life. Why do you think the Man Cave concept was invented? This technological place of secular solace exists in the modern world simply because men shouldn’t be expected to give absolutely everything to their women. Yes, they should love only one woman. And yes, they need to be open and honest.  But in return, women must be willing to let their guys keep their manhood, for heaven’s sake!

Although Wayne puts out a lot of energy in concert, the Energizer Bunny must have been plugged in someplace else during the recording of this disc. These songs conspicuously lack snap, crackle, and pop. It’s not until “There’s A Memory”, a full seven songs into the project, that electric guitar finally makes itself fully felt. But even then, there’s so much string sweetening, it nearly negates any slight power supplied by the electric six-string work.

This 10-song recording closes with a piece that steps outside the firmly established human male sacrifice mode for just a few minutes.  It tells the story of a girl that grows up loving a stuffed elephant toy. This little one also eventually evolves into an adult that takes care of those close to her with the same affection she first expressed toward her pet. And ultimately, the term “elephant ears” becomes her code phrase for love.

Unfortunately, too much of this work is imaginary, much like that tiny tot’s fluffy menagerie- member. The listener is left wishing for a whole lot more reality CD; not the real world of television, mind you, but the real world that everybody recognizes as true life. Wayne could learn lesson or two from Brad Paisley, whom he recently opened for in concert. Paisley oftentimes relays the harsh truths about male/female relationships with helpful spoons full of sugary humor. Sure, Brad also sings his share of devoted love songs; but his humorous confessionals make these otherwise worshipful lyrics much more acceptable, somehow. And unlike a particular cable news network, which is named after a crafty animal, Paisley might actually be fair and balanced. Sara may be smiling back at Jimmy Wayne, due to all his sweet words. But even she knows they can’t all be entirely true, all the time.

Check out the Song By Song for "Sara Smile" by clicking here.

You can support Jimmy Wayne by purchasing this album at Amazon | iTunes.