Last night I attended the Faith Hill/Tim McGraw concert at the Excel. I would have never bought a ticket for that concert, but when Ryan's girlfriend's mom was unable to get herself out of bed due to a back injury, I became the last minute substitution.
I am not a country fan, which didn't matter with Faith Hill because I discovered last night that she is not a country singer. She sang only one song in her set that sounded somewhat country - about waiting home for her man in the kitchen - the rest was pop and rock. I recognized two of her songs, Breathe and The Way You Love Me. She closed her set with a rocking version of Janis Joplin's A Piece of My Heart. Hill has a beautiful voice and when she sings it is all about the voice.
McGraw, on the other hand, has what I would describe as an awful voice. But it was obvious that he is the star of this show. When he came out the place erupted. People sang along with all his songs; he often stopped singing and let the audience sing the verses and the chorus. He also featured his band more, which was o.k. because they were very good. He has more of a twangy, country-like voice, and sang more country-like songs. Still, if this is the face of today's country music it more like the 70's pop music, ala The Eagles.
In fact, all of the pre-concert music was the music I listened to in the 70's. All in all it was an enjoyable evening.
I just read Jon Bream's review of the concert in the Star Tribune (apparently not online yet). For some reason he was fixated on the fact that Hill and McGraw weren't touching each other enough. He gets paid for that?
1 comment:
OK, I admit it, I'm a pop culture vulture!!
I too was not a fan of country--until the past 6-7 years. Even now, it is usually only traditional folk tunes like those my father used to listen to on Renfro Valley Radio and The Grand Ole Opry. I got the soundtracks to O Brother, Where Art Thou and Cold Mountain.
However the night that I was driving the car with the radio on and I heard Tim McGraw's song, "Live Like You Were Dying" chills went up my spine. The next day I went out and bought his CD. It is the only pop country CD that I own. "Live Like You Were Dying" was McGraw's tribute to his late father, Tug, baseball star of my youth and is based upon Tug's personal philosophy.
An interesting sideline is that Tim didn't know his father Tug until he had reached fame as a country singer at which point Tim and Tug developed a relationship and Tim was there for him at the end of his life even though Tug was never there for Tim at the beginning of his. I was particularly enamored of Tug when I was a teen as he was a very colorful character. Although McGraw's voice isn't very pretty, his skill as a songwriter is superb. McGraw is able to capture some complicated emotions lyrically.
I like Faith Hill because Elton John (to me the God of Pop Music) recognized her vocal talent early in her career. They performed together on a t.v. special a few years back. Like you said, it is all about her voice. She doesn't do much songwriting but covers other peoples' material superbly. I don't own any of her music except that which is in duet with Elton John.
Much to my dismay, I don't get to go to concerts much these days because my husband, Scott, doesn't much enjoy going to concerts and has a particular disdain for the price of tickets. I deeply miss going to concerts and I longingly watch the dates of concerts of my favorite artists on the Ticketmaster website come and go. I usually don't read the reviews because it is too painful to know I've missed another one.
Lucky You, Liberalpastor!
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