PUBLISHED IN THE TORONTO STAR, Wednesday, January 14, 1997

By Nick Krewen

"Goodnight Sweetheart" has become something of a calling card for DAVID KERSH.

"It's been played at weddings. It's been played at funerals. It's touched many people in many different ways," says the baby-faced native of Humble, Texas, of the Top Ten country song that's become an anthem for separated lovers everywhere.

Kersh has the mail to prove it.

He's been the target of thousands of fan letters delivered from remote air bases and naval stations around the globe swooning about "Goodnight Sweetheart's" homesick message.

"I get a lot of fan mail from people in the military, especially marines and navy personnel who are overseas, and their loved one is back here," concedes Kersh, 26, and sweetheartless at the moment.

Even flight attendants are lifted by the song.

"Everytime I'm on an airplane and people recognize me, flight attendants tell me it's their favorite song because it talks about being in an airplane."

The most moving tale of the song's effect was from a man who called in to a Texas radio show on which Kersh was appearing, telling him he had just played "Goodnight Sweetheart" at his wife's funeral.

"He told us it was his wife's favorite song. He and his wife had fallen in love, gotten married, and then he lost her in a car accident a short time later ," recalls Kersh, his eyes shifting to the floor.

"He played it at her funeral as a way of saying, ` Goodnight. I'll see you later.' That really tore me up inside."

The importance of a good message is not lost on David Kersh, who is hoping for similar responses to his new ballad "Another You," or any future singles to be eventually released from his debut Curb album, Goodnight Sweetheart. In fact, it's a prerequisite.

"I want it first off to reflect David Kersh, but I want it lyrically to be something people can identify with a lot, or relate to," says the self-described golf and bow hunting enthusiast, offering a speaking voice several shades higher than his silver dollar tenor.

"That's the thing about country music listeners. They listen to the words. It means a lot to them."

Still carrying a wet-behind-the-ears enthusiasm that remains unsullied by the sometimes grimy business side of country music, Kersh sports an ear-to-ear grin as he sums up the Top Ten success of "Goodnight Sweetheart."

"It's really awesome. I'd never thought I'd have a record deal, nor a song on the radio that everybody likes. It's pretty cool," he says as he stretches his square shoulders against a couch in a Toronto hotel suite under the shadow of his brown Stetson. Kersh was in town on the weekend to tape a future episode of the syndicated radio program Today's Country.

He seems to possess all the physical and personal qualities that new country music is gunning to deliver: handsome, hunky and polite in that wholesome BRYAN WHITE sort of way; a clean, all-American image replete with glowing smile and a toothy glint that nine out of ten dentists recommend.

Even the surreal name of his hometown Humble implies apple pie and white picket fences. Kersh chuckles as he discloses the story behind the locale's unusual name.

"The guy that found Humble, Texas, his real name is PLEASANT HUMBLE," says Kersh. "It was a group of English people that doesn't pronounce their 'H's', so it's actually pronounced "Umble" even though it's spelled "Humble." I thought that was the funniest thing."

Life in Humble seemed to be scripted straight from episodes of Leave It To Beaver. As the middle sibling sandwiched between an older sister and a younger brother, Kersh grew up singing in the church choir, eventually attending Humble High, and sitting in at school talent shows with his principal's country music band.

His only childhood regret? Forsaking the piano for baseball.

"That's one of the biggest mistakes I ever made, now looking' back. You can learn so much easier and absorb so much more when you're young. I just don't have the time to put into learning the piano anymore."

"But I've been a singer since I can remember," he says. "People were telling me to shut up because I sang so much."

At 19, David Kersh joined his first band and began proving his mettle by tackling the Texas dancehall circuit, not an easy road when GEORGE STRAIT is the national Lone Star standard.

On New Year's Eve, 1991, Kersh experienced what he calls his "defining moment" at a dancehall in nearby New Taton -- population, 600.

"The first band that I was in, NIGHT RIDERS, had been around for several years," Kersh recalls. "I wanted to go work for that band because it was so well known. Later, me and some other guys left and formed our own band TEXAS ACCENT.

"On that first gig, we had 921 people show up. That blew me away. I could not believe it. Nobody had heard the name, but that gave me the confidence that I did have a following. That was really the turning point."

After abandoning a university stint three semesters short of a master's degree in physical therapy, Kersh was signed by RCA Nashville and eventually relocated to Curb, run by former California lieutenant governor and music impressario MIKE CURB.

Now preparing a concert run of 240 dates in 1997 with some possible Canadian appearances, David Kersh feels his career is a fulfillment of destiny.

"I just think it was really meant to be. I don't want to go as far as saying it was meant that I was gonna have a record deal, but I think I was always going to be a singer. I believe that God blesses you with abilities for some reason. You just never know."

-30-

FAST FACTS

Born September 12, 1970, as Charles David Kersh

Majored in physical therapy at Southwest Texas State

Former drain worker and floor installer

THANKS: BETH WALDMAN, LESLEY TAYLOR

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