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Jackson lets singing do
his talking
Country star wows fans at
state fair
Country music fans get the sampler platter at this year's
Kentucky State Fair.
Thursday night brought Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson's
fun-loving hyperkinetic freak parade to town. Saturday night,
country superstar Alan Jackson brought a much calmer atmosphere to
Freedom Hall.
He is in the traditional camp, which embraces steel guitars and
fiddles while eschewing pop and rock influences.
Jackson's
stage approach is so low-key, walking to one end of the stage is
noteworthy.
Early on he told the crowd: "I don't talk a
whole lot. I sing."
And sing he did.
He spent most
of the night standing in the middle of the stage simply singing his
songs into a microphone — no dancing, no fireworks. The only special
effects were five huge screens behind and to the sides of the stage.
For somebody of Jackson's caliber, that was plenty good
enough.
The night was like a live greatest hits album, but
in almost two hours he still didn't get through all his hit songs.
Jackson opened with "Gone Country" his tongue-in-cheek
reference to pop crossovers into the country field.
While
Jackson sang, concert shots and often video or photo montages were
flashed on the giant screens. Many of the images were about family
and cars, two of Jackson's biggest loves.
In fact, the songs
all seemed to be about family, cars, love and drinking, which cover
most of the country gamut.
One of the sweetest moments was
when he sang "Drive (for Daddy Gene)," which is his love song to
cars, his childhood and his father. The video for the song was shown
on the screens and ended with a picture of Jackson's father and the
dates of his birth and death. Jackson didn't comment on the song,
but it was obvious it came from the heart.
He closed the
show with "Where I Come From" which included a clever montage of
shots from around town and the fair. Whenever a UK or UofL shirt or
mascot was shown on the screen the cheers and boos broke out on both
sides, sometimes almost drowning out the music.
Jackson came
back for an encore of "Mercury Blues" and while the band jammed he
signed autographs for fans in the front rows. He said he likes to
thank his fans because Kentucky has always been good to him. And
Saturday night he was good to Kentucky.
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