POP MUSIC REVIEW : Jimmy Webb Evokes an Earnest Era at the Cinegrill

“Earstalgia” is a term coined by singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb on Tuesday at the Cinegrill to describe the feeling his music evokes.

“It’s when you hear a song and it takes you back to a certain place, a certain time,” he said to the opening night audience.

The time Webb’s music evokes for most listeners is almost certainly the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, when hit radio played such unadorned, earnest records as Bacharach and David’s “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” and such Webb standards as “All I Know” (recorded by Art Garfunkel), “Up Up and Away” (the Fifth Dimension) and “MacArthur Park” (Richard Harris).

The hits have ebbed for Webb since that era, but at the Cinegrill his talent seemed as vital as ever.

Accompanying himself on the piano and occasionally joined by oboe, guitar and accordion (the last played by cult hero Van Dyke Parks), he coaxed a contemporary relevance from such ‘60s compositions as “Worst That Could Happen,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and “Wichita Lineman,” and rendered the newer ones with humor and conviction.

While his nondescript vocals showed why he has never been a success as a recording artist, the rough, howling-at-the-moon way he delivered them provided character.

Webb’s biggest hits might well be behind him--notwithstanding the recent country success of the Highwaymen’s “The Highwayman”--but the sentimental “earstalgia” they bring on is bound to endure a long time after the current crop of Top 40 smashes fades from mind.

Webb continues at the Cinegrill Friday and Saturday and next Thursday through Aug. 10.