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She truly blends country, rock

By JOHN FRANK
Published December 11, 2006

Country singer Gretchen Wilson, left, joins a line dance Saturday with residents of the Key Training Center in Lecanto, which is one of the chartities that benefited from her concert that day.
	[Times photo: M. N. Golden]

CRYSTAL RIVER - If the theme is "Country Rocks the Canyon," few can do it better than Gretchen Wilson.

She showed Saturday night that she's the queen of rocking country, lighting up the crowd at Rock Crusher Canyon with her boot-stomping anthems Redneck Woman, Here for the Party and All Jacked Up.

It was the last date on her "Redneck Revolution Tour," her first as a headliner, but the fatigue of the road didn't show. It was just straightforward country music - loud and proud and nonstop - at the second annual concert benefiting the Mike Hampton Pitching-In Foundation.

The only disappointment was the crowd. High ticket prices and a chilly night at the 7,000-seat outdoor venue kept about half of the upper canyon area empty.

Citrus County's premier -yet underutilized - venue is probably one of the most unique places to see a raucous country concert. As a few crowd members commented, it's the "Redneck Red Rocks," a Southern slant on the famous outdoor amphitheater in Colorado.

The fans who made it out gave it their all, though. Warmed up by local acts Swanson Family Bluegrass Band of Crystal River and Cason of Fernandina Beach, they really came alive when Blake Shelton took the stage.

The Oklahoma native proved that he's one of the purist artists in the business with a throwback cover of Lonely Women Make Good Lovers and a fiddle jam in the middle of the show.

"I don't know about you, but I like that older stuff more than this new crap coming out," he told the crowd.

Shelton joked with the fans using his smart-alecky humor to talk about country stereotypes of "beer drinking and inbreeding."

To close his set, he saved the best for last, finishing with his biggest hits, Austin, Some Beach and Ol' Red.

Wilson took the opposite approach, opening the show with her Here for the Party hit on her 2004 quadruple-platinum album of the same name.

She won the crowd over early in the show with Come to Bed, the current single from her upcoming third studio album, which is due out in early 2007. The song features strong and alluring steel guitar riffs that set it apart.

The Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year kept the pure country fans going with the prominent mandolin cords in Heaven Help Me, a new song that is included in her recently released book, Redneck Woman, Stories of My Life.

But a few moments later, it was back to her rocking roots.

"Who said rednecks can't rock 'n' roll?" she asked the crowd before launching into All Jacked Up and later Redneck Woman.

Her down-to-earth image was just an on-stage persona. Before the concert, she met with fans and signed autographs at the Key Training Center in Lecanto, one of the charities benefiting from the concert.

With Wilson standing a few feet away, 9-year-old Amber Hough was in awe.

"Oh, my God," she said when her favorite country artist walked by.

Bill and Marlene Michaelson were among the 350 fans who lined up for a chance to meet Wilson. They waited in line for three hours to get a guitar signed.

"We called the minute we found out concert tickets were on sale," Bill Michaelson said.

As for meeting Wilson, he appreciated her laid-back nature.

"She is someone who remembers exactly where they came from," he said.

John Frank can be reached at 860-7312 or jfrank@sptimes.com.

[Last modified December 10, 2006, 22:59:21]