He doesn`t dance the achy-breaky like this week`s reigning country heartthrob Billy Ray Cyrus or sing from high atop the light rigging like Garth Brooks. Saturday at the World Music Theatre, Clint Black instead did what he does best: sing his songs about blue-collar dreams, star-crossed lovers and the lure of his native Texas` wide-open spaces.
It was just a couple of years ago that Black was country music`s top male vocalist, sitting on top of the record charts with an armful of awards. In 1992, though, country fans have become increasingly fickle, but if Black noticed that the World`s pavilion was not quite sold out and the lawn empty, he wasn`t letting on.
Black dramatically appeared onstage surrounded by a haze of smoke at the rear of a multitiered replica of a Southwestern mesa. Dressed all in black, he strolled down a ramp leading to the stage front as his 10-piece band created a thunderous noise and the video screens flanking the stage showed ominous-looking black clouds rolling in.
Black, though, is anything but a theatrical performer. An amiable sort with an ever-present grin, he focused strictly on his music once the show began. His high, clear vocals defined such hits as ”Loving Blind” and ”Put Yourself in My Shoes,” while the Houston native put a distinct Western flavor on ”The Good Old Days,” ”The Goodnight-Loving” and ”We Tell Ourselves.” Most tellingly, Black`s affecting solo performance of a new song,
”Unhappiness Alone,” while seated alone at the front of the stage, proved that the theatrical trappings were unnecessary.
Preceding Black was Billy Dean, whose warm vocals, heartfelt songs and movie-star good looks combined for an unbeatable package. He showed his sensitive side on the former No. 1 single ”Somewhere in My Broken Heart,”
while he took a nostalgic look at his childhood on the current hit, ”Billy the Kid.”
Judging by the audience`s response, don`t be surprised if Dean is headlining amphitheaters sometime soon.
Opener Aaron Tippin did a bit too much arm pumping and macho posturing for a 25-minute set, highlighted by his populist hits ”You`ve Got to Stand For Something” and ”There Ain`t Nothin` Wrong With the Radio.”
