James Gregory Ananda CD

He rarely performs live but in person, seated at the piano wearing no socks and with his legs crossed, he oddly pulls it off through a certain amount of directness and, well, maybe charm, and it's likely that folks who have seen the act recall some of this and that's what they were looking for in his recordings. But for the rest of you there's no getting around it: Maury can't sing a lick.

Also, you have to be prepared, if you're gonna listen to his CD "Ramblings of the morning following a sleepless night," to wade through seven of his poems. They're not hip. They're not even good poetry. But there they are, taking up seven of the first thirteen tracks, daring you to spend more time than it's worth to program your CD player to skip them and play only the songs.

Then, as if to underscore just what a lousy singer he is, Maury has included two tracks with songs of his which are sung by Rock Tipton, an exceptionally gifted singer. And the question is, why? I mean, would you allow photos of Julia Roberts and Jennifer Lopez to flank yours?But there is good stuff here. A lot of it. First of all there's Maury's lyrics. They're first rate. They're moving and they're whimsical. They paint pictures your eye will clearly see and they tell stories that you're glad you heard.

The music may not, on the whole, be great music, but it's serviceable and sets his lyrics nicely. And aside from that it's performed well. All of it. But especially Rock Tipton's guitar on the two tracks on which he sings (most magically on "A Christmas Song"), Rick Schmidt's fiddle on "Appalachian Rain" and Vince McCool's flugelhorn which wanders in and out perfectly on "Spring Smells Funny."Also, this CD is very well engineered by Michael Setton at Blue House Productions in Silver Spring, Maryland. That can be heard throughout.

' In 2008, Burns won three awards in the first ever Trop Rock Music Awards. Burns won 'Entertainer of the Year,' 'CD of the Year (for 'Ragtops and Flip Flops')' and a special WAVE award for his charitable work through his Brent Burns Charitable Foundation. Burns has been all over the national scene this year with his song and video, 'Pain At The Pump.

' After the video was posted on You Tube, CNN interviewed Burns and used the video in their special '4 Bucks! What's Next? America's Fuel Crisis.

' This is Burns' second time to tap into the American public's anger over rising fuel costs. In response to the oil shortages of the 1970s and 80s, Burns wrote the hit song, 'Cheaper Crude or No More Food.

' The song sold 200,000 copies the day it was released and climbed the Billboard Charts after radio commentator Paul Harvey played it three times. It is the first and only song ever played in Harvey's nearly 50 years of radio broadcasting.