Little of Clevenger Seen in ‘Love Songs’

If a musician has to be in a rut, it might as well be as roomy and pleasant as the one Walter Clevenger occupies.

The Costa Mesa singer-songwriter, who plays tonight at Linda’s Doll Hut in Anaheim, arrived in 1997 with “The Man With the X-Ray Eyes,” a charming disc of twangy roots-based pop that echoed the Beatles, Nick Lowe and Marshall Crenshaw. “Love Songs to Myself” offers more of the same, with a few slightly different wrinkles. It’s consistently enjoyable ear-candy that never rankles or bores but seldom enthralls.

“I feel about as worthless as a cookbook on the shelf,” Clevenger laments after being dumped on the reproachful but freely rocking title track, which ends an album devoted to romantic aspirations and upsets. To improve his own recipe and elevate it beyond tasty roadhouse fare, Clevenger needs to add a dash of ambition and a dollop of individuality.

He’s mainly content to pay homage to his sources--replicating Lowe on “That’s When You Come Back” and “Lonely Boy,” revising Buddy Holly’s “Oh Boy” on “All My Love,” applying a Mersey beat to Everly Brothers harmonies on “I’ll Return Again,” or decking out a Buck Owens-style country twanger with rich pop backing vocals on “Only You.” The Byrds also emerge as an influence, with lots of Rickenbacker guitar chime and, on “Back to You,” a nice evocation of Gene Clark’s innocent pop songwriting from the Byrds’ earliest days.

It’s all very well done and at least lightly engaging; “Love in Your Eyes,” a chugging, expansive ballad highlighted by a creamy, Justin Hayward-like vocal and lots of delectable, lush backing “oohs” and “aahs,” reaches toward higher realms of pop transcendence.

But as a lyricist, Clevenger doesn’t risk enough. In “My Place,” he imagines himself ensconced like one of the Three Little Pigs behind a barricade that keeps a prying world out and enables him to avoid revealing himself--and little is revealed in his songs. His simple, ultra-familiar love-yearned-for and love-gone-wrong scenarios may have sounded fresh in the hands of sonic pioneers such as Holly, the Everlys and the early Beatles, but a latecomer like Clevenger needs to do more to make an individual statement. The Three Little Pigs image, and the above-quoted cookbook metaphor, are his only attempts at figurative language on the entire album, not counting the love-as-shipwreck scenario in “Sinking Ships” that’s as old and waterlogged as the Titanic.

For round three, Clevenger needs to dig deeper into his soul and imagination, or else admit that he has the talents of a Glenn Tilbrook--capable singer, good guitarist, catchy melodist--and is now in need of a lyrically astute partner.

* Walter Clevenger & the Dairy Kings, Wayside and Scarlet Crush play at Linda’s Doll Hut, 107 S. Adams St., Anaheim. 9 tonight. $6. (714) 533-1286.

Ratings range from one star (poor) to four stars (excellent), with three stars a solid recommendation.