3½ Stars

One of the nice things about Taylor Hicks on record is that you don't have to watch him try to dance. He's not even dancing in the CD booklet. Instead, we see the "American Idol" winner holding a guitar, even though he's not credited anywhere on the record as actually playing one.

That's OK. He has other people to do that. His job was to sing and make sure he wasn't completely embarrassed by the production and song choices that have sabotaged numerous other Idols.

Much to my surprise, he succeeded. Rather than "Soul Patrol!" kitsch or a Clay Aiken schmaltz-fest, "Taylor Hicks" is a tasteful blue-eyed soul record not unlike the ones we used to get from Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, Stevie Winwood and the like. Around these parts, people might even say, "Hey, that sounds like Billy Price."

Producer Matt Serletic (Matchbox Twenty) finds a nice meeting ground between contemporary pop and Memphis-style R&B, and the musicianship is slick but tasty. It's loaded with potential hits for the stations that moms and grandmoms listen to when their kids aren't messing with the radio.

It starts out poppier than it is with a brassy "The Run-Around" and "Dream Myself Awake," typical pop craft from Rob Thomas. But then Paul Pena's "Gonna Move" and "Heaven Knows," which takes the riff from "What'd I Say," are all retro-classic winners. Same with Hicks' own "Soul Thing," but he's going to owe Warren Haynes ("Soulshine") a few bucks for that one.

In places where he could go over the top, like on the inevitable Diane Warren track, "Places I've Been," or the Randy Newman-style closer "The Right Place," he keeps his control and grit.

Club singers like our beloved Price have been making records like this for years. All it took was an unlikely run by a silver-haired young Idol with two left feet to put it on a major label.