One way current country stars trump mainstream pop’s big names is singing ability. Most Nashville, Tenn., moneymakers can belt circles around today’s crop of just-add-water urban divas.
At the Hard Rock Cafe on Tuesday at an all-acoustic benefit in conjunction with WKLB-FM (Country 102.5), back-to-twang headliner Blake Shelton and fast-rising country-pop sensation Lady Antebellum proved that artists on both sides of country’s coin have enough innate talent to perform in the buff, musically speaking.
The Georgia-meets-Nashville trio Lady Antebellum delivered a heap of contagious, harmony-driven confections backed by a single acoustic guitar. Such tracks as the opener “Loves Lookin’ Good on You” and the runaway smash “Love Don’t Live Here” stood up even without the rock-tinged production of the group’s recently released, self-titled debut. In fact, the bare setting allowed the music’s beautiful gospel leanings to shine through.
Both lead vocalists, Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott, have solid voices and plenty of sex appeal on their own, but it’s really the sum of Lady Antebellum’s three parts - guitarist/harmony singer Dave Haywood rounds out the trio - that makes its sound soar. Covers of the Doobie Brothers’ “Long Train Runnin’ ” and Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle” (popularized by the Black Crowes) filled out the set.
Shelton’s short stint also oozed with talent - save for the ridiculous poem he read about halfway through. Alone on stage with his six-string, Shelton’s uber-masculine Budweiser/Marlboro Man image came across believably on such playful numbers as “The More I Drink” and “Playboys of the Southwestern World,” and he indulged Hub country fans’ hillbilly fantasies by calling the crowd “a roomful of rednecks.”
Still, he did best when exposing a bit of vulnerability, and sang most powerfully when pouring himself into the ballads “Austin” (changed for the occasion to “Boston”), “The Baby,” “Home” and “Don’t Make Me.”
Unfortunately, the crowd’s chatter and inebriated behavior reduced the performances to incidental background fodder.
BLAKE SHELTON and LADY ANTEBELLUM at the Hard Rock Cafe, Tuesday night.
