Cybill Shepherd: At Home With Cybill

I’ll give Cybill Shepherd points for consistency. She couldn’t really sing back in her Moonlighting salad days (though she tried to prove otherwise often enough) and still can’t come remotely close to doing anything interesting with the torch songs that fill the generally dreadful, self-produced At Home With Cybill (River Siren). Sounding like an overripe Dinah Shore, Shepherd bashes away at such unsuspecting victims as “My Romance,” “I Could Write a Book,” “Sophisticated Lady” and “Begin the Beguine,” leaving their tender sentiments bloodied and bruised. Then, just when you’re ready to reemploy the disc as a Frisbee, she tones down the exhausting histrionics, drops her I-wanna-be-Ella airs and lets loose with a rendition of “Fields of Gold” that’s downright enjoyable. The lesson to be learned from this? If Shepherd were willing to put aside the jazz diva pretense and wrap her passably pleasant voice around a few of the good ol’ country tunes she grew up with, she just might have something worth listening to.

Originally Published December 1, 2004