I WISH THEY ALL COULD BE JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #406!

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Nancy Sinatra – Shifting Gears (Boots Enterprises) :: Contrary to what you may believe after reading this record review, I am not on Nancy Sinatra’s payroll.

Granted, I have admired her work ever since I first heard her barrier-busting clarion calls of liberation back in the ’60s, but the only tenuous connection I can lay claim to is that, ten years ago, I wrote an unabashed endorsement of a movie she appeared in called Mayor of the Sunset Strip which was printed at the top of the DVD’s back cover.

But that’s it. Which is why I can afford to ditch four decades of filigree fancy rock writing rhetoric and tell you, without any fear of getting a vengeance visit from the Payola Police, to click this link and buy her new album now!

Don’t worry, I’ll wait here until you get back. If you get back. Because after you’ve sampled how she owns the opening selection “As Time Goes By,” you’ll be so hooked that listening to the remainder of the record is the only thing you’re gonna have on your mind.

If, as the theory goes, there’s a little bit of rebellious Nancy Sinatra in everyone come Saturday night, then you can safely bet your last dollar bill that there’s more than a little romantic Nancy Sinatra in everyone come the next morning.

Sometimes, however, there’s the occasional hard letdown to contend with as the day dawns. Ever arise on a Sunday morning surrounded by the unholy architecture of empty bottles, crumpled cigarette packages and assorted scraps of cold food? Alone? After being given the gate by your gal or guy the night before?

Then step right up and have a seat because Nancy’s got a little story she thinks you should know. Fifteen of them, in fact, spanning half a century of popular music from the ’20s to the ’70s. And every single one of them is guaranteed to renew your flagging faith in romance and remind you that each day is Valentine’s Day.

That’s because Shifting Gears’ lushly stringed standards, all which were carefully harvested from a personal archive of previously unheard performances straight outta Nancy’s secret mountain vault, have been deftly assembled by the artist herself into a bona fide concept album whose sequence deftly delineates the development of a love affair.

Impressive, I know. But not nearly as impressive as the fact that, I kid you not, this is Nancy Sinatra singing at her soul-stirring best. And thanks in no small part to the production and luxurious arrangements of her long-time and late lamented Wrecking Crew collaborator, the truly legendary Billy Strange, it’s like getting to hear a long lost Reprise album that never got assigned a matrix number.

I could go on, but for once I won’t. Because if I do continue to wax ecstatic about how wonderfully refreshing Nancy Sinatra’s Shifting Gears album is in this day and age of computerized do it yourself dross; or about how it’s got the swankiest four-on-the-floor album cover ever thanks to the most-modern artwork of JoSH AGle, I’m liable to get all tongue-tied and say somethin’ stupid. Which means there’s only one thing left for me to do. Start walkin’.

Be seeing you!