Digital Extras

5.08.2001
ALBUM REVIEW
Dare to Dream marks debut of a more mature Billy Gilman

By VAUGHAN WATSON
Journal Pop Music Writer

Dare To Dream, the new disk from Billy Gilman in stores today, markets the young singer from Hope Valley as Billy the teen, more mature than Billy the kid.

Gilman, who turns 13 on May 24, is more believable than he was a year ago, emoting love as a prepubescent crush in a few teen-pop style songs that could play on Dawson's Creek. Those songs are all right, but don't cover turf any weightier than radio pop. As for the songs' frivolity, credit the bubble-gum songwriting by several composers, including David Malloy, the CD's co-producer (along with Blake Chancey and Don Cook).

She's My Girl, the first single, and the country-pop Our First Kiss are less catchy than I've Got To Make It To Summer, a sweet, breezy and nostalgic ballad.

The disk's thoughtful ballads are more sure-footed. Instead of just singing nicely, Gilman imparts a moral, however heavy-handed, with One Voice's doe-eyed earnestness.

Those songs are the better third of the disk, and though their themes are less singular than One Voice's anti-violence message, the rest of the songs tackle heady issues: fate, religion and responsibility. God's Alive And Well finds the potency of sacred traditions in the simplicity of everyday things: the birth of a baby, the sun rising.

On Elisabeth, a sugary, conscientious ballad, Gilman is a champion of living a passionate life, big talk for a 12-year-old. "When she cries, she cries in sadness but never for herself. She cries for everybody else," Gilman sings of the protagonist in Elisabeth. "Elisabeth, you make the world a better place with your kindness and your love."

In Elisabeth and My Time On Earth, Gilman aspires to tell a listener that he grasps a bigger point — a point also reflected in time spent with Gilman in a formal interview. He knows that a platinum-selling record before his 12th birthday, and now the follow-up disk, are strokes of brilliant good fortune that could end tomorrow. "My time on Earth, long as it seems, is just a moment in the grand scheme of things," Gilman sings. "A short refrain, of life's ending song, sung only once and then we're gone."

Gilman will soon grapple with the physical changes to his voice that come with teen years. Here, he still carries the strong singing style he flexed in One Voice, but flutters on the highest notes on Elisabeth, and in come the background vocals. He strives to convey ease in other ways: his delivery, and the song and arrangement choices made by producers Cook, Malloy and Chancey (who worked with Gilman on One Voice).

Gilman began recording Dare To Dream in February. Sony Nashville executives at that time were considering holding the record for a release in the fall, or even in 2002.

Dare To Dream's May release sends several signals: that Sony is ready to hit the market with a maturing-look Gilman. And Sony also went with the May release because Gilman didn't win either of the two Grammy Awards for which he was nominated (Best Country Song for One Voice, Best Male Country Vocal Performance) and One Voice didn't gain the sales bounce that, say, Lee Ann Womack saw.

Womack's I Hope You Dance beat out One Voice at the Grammy's for Best Country Song. After 47 weeks, Womack's album held the number three spot last week on Billboard's country albums chart.

One Voice did set a blazing trail of success for Dare To Dream: the debut disk sold more than 1.25 million albums sold in 10 months, fueled by the title song's message: a melodious ballad in which Gilman cried out against violence. The song gained Gilman fans among country-pop listeners, teen-pop fans and their mothers.

The album hit Billboard's Top Country Albums chart at number four and went as high as two. Gilman brought home an American Music Award for Favorite New Country Artist. He is the youngest solo performer to have a platinum record and the youngest solo artist to gain a Grammy nomination.

In October, Gilman released Classic Christmas; the album sold more than 500,000 copies. But Sony Nashville is dubbing Dare To Dream, not Classic Christmas, the One Voice follow up.

As for Gilman, he'll debut She's My Girl in performance tomorrow in Los Angeles, singing at the Academy of Country Music Awards. The show airs at 8 on CBS (Ch. 4, 12).

Today, he and country-teen singer Jessica Andrews are co-emceeing the Sizzlin' Country benefit concert in LA.