Stewart: Serious Stuff

** 1/2 JOHN STEWART. “Punch the Big Guy.” Cypress. On the album cover, the veteran California singer-songwriter glares disgustedly out at the world from a TV screen--an image that pretty much characterizes his viewpoint in the 10 songs here. He takes on most of the world’s political and social ills, from the Middle East to the nuclear threat to disintegrating personal relationships, singing with a quaver that trembles with commitment. But this record is generally so humorless that Stewart often reminds you of a door-to-door proselytizer who won’t go away. One exception is “Midnight of the World,” sort of a folkie’s answer to Prince’s “1999” credo of “dance my life away.” Elsewhere, though, Stewart gets swallowed up by his own earnestness. As John Prine and Loudon Wainwright have shown time and again, it’s possible to be a serious folk artist and have fun, too.