Tomkins's well modulated voice with a tone as warm and smooth as suede, tackles popular songs such as Shenandoah, Norwegian Wood, and Marta Keen's haunting Homeward Bound as well as songs composed and arranged by Trey Mills and Christopher Dedrick. Here is a singer whom you can understand. His enunciation is perfect. Of course, one expects this from someone who has studied in the opera school at the University of Toronto, taken part in master classes by such greats as Marilyn Horn and Michael Schade, and others, and been connected with the Aldeburgh Festival.

This baritone is someone, who will definitely be heard of more in the years to come. He has the gift, but he needs to mature. While he charms us with the elegant styling of his singing, one misses the soul of such songs as Shenandoah and Homeward Bound. These two songs should ring with longing and loss, which this young singer has somehow failed to communicate to the listener. He somewhat captures the true nature of When Winter Comes, one of Dedrick's songs, but he is hampered there by the composer's signature, so to speak. As for his interpretation of Norwegian Wood, a Lennon/McCartney song, it is well sung, but lacks the edge and the ironic tone that the original Beatles version contains.

What bothers me about this CD is that the songs by Dedrick and Mills are cut from the same template and one can't quite tell where one begins, and the other one ends, with both of them showing simple variations on the theme of the style of music made popular by the likes of Phantom at the Opera, Les Miserable and Miss Saigon. They are not the best showcase for a voice that is obviously capable of much more. That is why Homeward Bound, Shenandoah and also the song, Norwegian Wood, stand out so far from the other presentations, and why consequently one expects so much more of them.

For casual, undemanding listening, this is a fine album, well produced with a good tone, with the emphasis on "undemanding."