For those of you who know Nick Jonas as one of the three Jonas Brothers, the triad that sends teenyboppers into a frenzy and Disney straight to the bank, calm your fears, Who I Am has nothing to do with any of that.

Jonas’ solo venture sees him teaming up with a group of more experienced musicians who help to make sure he doesn’t fall into becoming a stereotypical teen artist. Those more experienced musicians are Jonas’ band, The Administration, which consists of bassist John Fields, who also produced the album, guitarist David Ryan Harris, and two former members of Prince’s New Power Generation, drummer Michael Bland and keyboardist Tommy Barbarella. While touring they add another former NPG member, Sonny Thompson, who fills in on guitar for Harris.

Clearly, Who I Am isn’t a typical teen pop venture. Rather, the album is an example of a young artist who wants to do something a little more creative musically.

Jonas wrote, or co-wrote, all ten songs on Who I Am, making the album’s title an appropriate one, and his songwriting skills are actually quite good. In fact, there were times when I felt he measured up to, or was possibly even a little better than, a number of songwriters who have well over a decade’s worth of experience over him. When listening to Who I Am it’s not unusual to completely forget that Jonas won’t turn 18 until later this year.

With his infamous Jonas purity ring is still intact there are no songs about sex on Who I Am, but that actually works to open up the album to far more topics, and when Jonas does sing about women it’s in a much different way. Personally, I found it a welcome respite from the hormonally charged songs people twice his age are putting out.

Vocally Jonas is still maturing. His voice is somewhere between his teen pop/rock roots and what he wants to be as an artist. At times you can tell he’s trying to channel Prince but he’s not quite there yet, and when he tries to growl it comes off as a younger singer trying sound mature. Songs like “Conspiracy” overwhelm him a bit, but you can see he’s almost there as he has little problem keeping up with the uber funky “State of Emergency,” which sounds like it was made for Stevie Wonder, and “Last Time Around.”

The slower songs are still more of Jonas’ bread and butter right now, though. “Rose Garden,” “Olive & An Arrow,” “Tonight,” and “In The End,” the latter sounding like something out of Kem’s songbook, all do a great job of showing off Jonas’ songwriting ability while masking his any deficiencies he has as a singer. This is not to say he’s a bad singer, he’s just a young one. The good news is Jonas seems to have a very clear vision for where he wants to go and what he sees himself doing in the future. With his work on Who I Am it’s easy to see he has a great chance to grow into that, and as he is now, his work is still very impressive.

Who I Am is an effort that’s worthy of applause. Nick Jonas is only 17, but he’s making sure he won’t be lumped into the teen pop market. He’s not buying beats from big name producers, or the lackeys of big name producers. Instead, he went out, found some of the top musicians around, and created a more mature sound for himself. Is the album perfect? No, but it’s very solid, and with Who I Am Jonas is separating himself from the pack at a very early age. Once his voice catches up with his vision there’s a very good chance he’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

– Adam Bernard

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Adam Bernard is a veteran entertainment journalist who still prefers his music on CD and would always rather be at a show. He can be read daily at www.adamsworldblog.com