RIYL: Frank Sinatra, Harry Connick Jr, Nat King Cole

Tim McCarver was a heck of a baseball player and is, despite the fact that many of you find his broadcasting annoying, a fantastic color analyst who teaches us more about the game with each passing telecast. He’s also blessed with a set of pipes that have granted him a long career calling games. But for those of you expecting a train wreck on McCarver’s debut as a singer, Tim McCarver Sings Songs from the Great American Songbook, you might want to save those eggs and tomatoes for someone else. We’ll give you that he’s nowhere in the class of crooners who made or make their living doing that, because you can certainly hear the green in McCarver’s wavering vocals at times. But for the most part, McCarver does a stand-up job on songs, that, let’s face it, are not easy to sing. It’s a nice little set of tunes, and among the best are the opener, “On a Clear Day,” the bouncy “I Wish I Were in Love Again,” and the one that he makes very believable giving his background, “There Used to Be a Ballpark.” Nobody expects McCarver to quit his day job, but he’s going to exceed lots of expectations with this one. (Archer 2009)

Tim McCarver at Archer Records

Young pianist and singer/songwriter Peter Cincotti came off as a young Harry Connick, Jr. with his crooner delivery on his self-titled debut a few years back. So it may come as a shock when you hear his new album of all original material, East of Angel Town. That’s because this is a pop/rock album through and through, and Cincotti has obviously been hiding behind some really impressive songwriting ability. But this project was also aided by an all-star team of producers including David Foster, Humberto Garcia and Jochem van der Saag, all of whom contributed to making this album sound larger than life. All of that also makes Cincotti’s newfound pop sensibility a nice breath of fresh air, and while the closest comparison to the songs on East of Angel Town might be Gavin DeGraw, make no mistake about the fact that Peter Cincotti has his own artistry and he wears it well. Among a pretty stellar batch of songs, the standouts are the hard-driving “Be Careful” and “Love is Gone,” the bluesy “Another Falling Star” and “Witches Brew” and the made-for-radio pop gem, “Man on a Mission.” (LABEL: Warner Bros.)

Peter Cincotti MySpace Page