R&B hitmaker Babyface serenades his folkie heroes

NEW YORK - Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, the architect of thumping R&B tunes for Whitney Houston, TLC and Bobby Brown, has surprisingly softer inspirations: guitar-strumming troubadours such as Bob Dylan and James Taylor.

What's more, the 49-year-old singer/songwriter/producer says that despite the pervasiveness of dance and rap-driven tunes on the pop charts, young musicians can learn from melodic compositions -- more folk than funky -- painstakingly crafted by such old masters.

"My influence in music has always been in picking up my acoustic guitar, and . . . from listening to these songs to begin with," he said in a telephone interview.

Babyface covers his favorites on "Playlist" (Mercury), due in September. He hopes that performers who feel they must mimic the uptempo hits of Kanye West or Justin Timberlake will share his affection for more modest songs by composers unknown to them, like Dave Loggins or Jim Croce.

"There are young musicians who make this kind of music and don't know that the door is open -- we need to try and open those doors," Babyface said. "A major success for this album might inspire some kids to say 'Hey, I want to do that."'

He laments that a generation has grown up making tunes built upon electronic keyboards and computer-derived beats, rather than drums, guitars and pianos, the kind of instruments he played everyday in high school.

"When they think of music, they think hip-hop, they don't think of a 'musician' whatsoever," Babyface said. "They don't seem to see the real purpose of it. They are making beats (on drum machines), instead of being on the drums. It's a battle to be real and be heard."

SAVING THE MUSIC

But with local education budget cutbacks often targeting music and arts programs, such basic skills may be lost to many kids. Long a champion of music in schools, Babyface became the largest individual benefactor of cable channel VH1's Save the Music Foundation in 1999 when he donated $60,000 to his home state of Indiana to restore and support music programs.

Babyface has won 10 Grammy awards, including producer of the year three years in a row, and crafted Boyz II Men's "End of the Road" and "I'll Make Love To You," which set records for the longest stay on top of the Billboard charts. His name is on records that have sold 100 million copies.

But his impeccable track record may not help him much with his new album. Even his most devoted fans, he acknowledges, expect him to crank out snappy solo cuts like his hits "Whip Appeal" and "Tender Lover," or perhaps "Take a Bow," which he wrote for Madonna -- not sentimental overtures like Dan Fogelberg's "Longer" or Croce's "Time in a Bottle."

"It is going to take some work to try and make this record bust through. It's beautiful music -- those that may be shocked when they hear the music, they too may become fans," he said. "But I believe in the idea of a black artist, an R&B artist, not being pigeonholed into being just R&B. We can and should do other kinds of music and open doors for others to follow."

In putting together the album, he had to drop plans to sing some of his favorite songwriters' songs, since he wanted to stay true to his inspirations' musical vision.

"If I had the voice and the vibe was just right, I would have done (John) Mellencamp, some (Bruce) Springsteen. I attempted to do (Harry Chapin's) "Cats in the Cradle" and "Alone Again (Naturally)" by Gilbert O'Sullivan," he said.

"I did the songs that I thought that I could pull off. Every record that I did felt like it was natural and an uplift. I didn't want to hurt the original idea."