Capitalizing on his small role in
Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained by running far, far away from country music,
Tom Wopat indulges his swinging side on 2013's
I've Got Your Number. Publicized as
Wopat's tip of the hat to the Mad Men era, in truth
I've Got Your Number isn't that far removed from the music
Wopat has been making over the past decade. After Dukes of Hazzard went off the air,
Wopat dedicated himself to the stage, which in turn led to a series of records of standards beginning with 2000's
The Still of the Night.
I've Got Your Number is cut from the same cloth, with the newest wrinkle being the addition of interpretations of songs by
Bruce Springsteen,
Paul Simon, and
James Taylor, songwriters who don't belong to the Mad Men era.
Wopat has mixed results with these -- "Meeting Across the River" turns into a bit of a dirge but "The Afterlife" benefits from a ring-a-ding-ding arrangement -- but anybody heading into this album expecting to chuckle at
Wopat's big-band style will be sorely disappointed as he's an old hat at this game, ably navigating its swing and bounce. He's a perfectly fine singer and not a bad songwriter, penning a couple of OK originals and generally selling this amiable collection. Don't think of this as a possible camp classic, as it's not: it's straight-ahead old-fashioned swing, delivered by somebody who knows the music well. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine