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Country sounds that are hot and cool

Blake Shelton will headline a Chasco Fiesta concert on Saturday that should appeal to a wide range of tastes.

By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
Published March 31, 2006

The headliner for this year's show is Blake Shelton, whose most recent album, Blake Shelton's Barn and Grill has been certified gold. His 2001 breakout hit single, Austin, a slow, soulful message on a telephone answering machine, stayed at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles and Tracks and the Top Country Singles chart for five weeks. The debut album, Blake Shelton, entered in the country albums chart at No. 3 and has sold more than 500,000 copies.

A mix of rock 'n' roll and old-time country, with slide guitars, fiddles and banjos, the Ada, Okla., native appeals to a wide range of tastes. His second album, The Dreamer, is considered by many to be stronger than his first. It produced the No. 1 hit, The Baby, while the album itself entered the charts at No. 2.

Opening act is Keith Anderson, who wrote the Grammy nominated Beer Run (B Double E Double Are You In), recorded as a duet by Garth Books and George Jones, and the chart-topping The Bed recorded by Gretchen Wilson.

Another Oklahoma native (he's from Miami, Okla.), Anderson sings as well as writes. The lyrics he wrote for his own Three Chord Country and American Rock & Roll shows why singers like Brooks and Jones seek out his work for their own albums.

In 2002, Anderson's group won the Jim Beam Country Band Search. Since then, he has drawn standing room-only-crowds to nightclubs and signed a contract with Arista Records.

Also on the bill are local favorites Wiley Fox and Jenna Thomas.

[Last modified March 31, 2006, 06:29:28]