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It\’s only appropriate that Alan Jackson opened Saturday night\’s performance at the South Okanagan Events Centre with Gone Country.
It appears as though the most popular concerts at the SOEC have been country, most recently with a sell-out of Brooks & Dunn and an anticipated sell-out for Reba McEntire in March.
Although there were a handful of empty seats on Saturday (the floor was at capacity but the bowl appeared 95 per cent filled), those in attendance were on their feet for most of the performance. Late in the evening, many fans were literally dancing in the aisles.
\"I\’ve been really lucky. I\’ve had some great years and Canada has been real good to me. I\’ve sold a lot of records up here and I thank you all for all the support,\" Jackson told the crowd just after finishing one of his biggest hits, Don\’t Rock the Jukebox.
Accompanied by nine male musicians – all but one hailed from a southern U.S. state – his stage set-up included three large video screens plus two smaller ones which showed accompanying clips from the respective video as well as random clips of the audience.
The audience shots were often tied in with a particular lyric to the song. The videos were neat at first but a tad unnecessary because fans can watch CMT anytime but can perhaps only see Jackson once in a lifetime.
During his first encore, Where I Come From, the producers cleverly included an endless reel of exterior shots of Penticton starting with the sign at Munson Mountain and including everything from St. Saviour\’s Church to Martini\’s on Martin. There was even a cameo from local firefighters.
With his most recent release coming in March 2008, Jackson‘s set list included the title song Good Time as well as Country Boy and Small Town Southern Man.
He cleverly changed lyrics to substitute \"Canadian\" or \"British Columbia\" whenever possible.
Without a hot-off-the-press album to promote, it allowed for a \"greatest hits\" type show.
With the concert clocking at only 100 minutes, there were some notable omissions from a set-list which is perhaps understandable from a singer with over 25 No. 1 singles to his credit. He performed most of the biggies, the show-stopper being the closer Chattahoochee. The 1992 megasmash was his first of several cross-over hits that made it onto the pop charts. The catchy toe-tapper has been featured ever since during stoppages in play of hockey games.
There was a lull in the middle where he played his most successful ballads including the autobiographical Remember When, which explored his long-time relationship with his wife and the pride in raising children.
Now 51, the native of Newman, Georgia (near Atlanta) still has marvellous stage presence and a truly beautiful voice.
He bonded with the audience by scrambling guitar picks during the first few numbers and then autographing cowboy hats, and even one boot, during his final song of the evening.
While he wrote most of his biggest hits, Jackson also performed his two most famous covers, Eddie Cochran\’s Summertime Blues and the final encore, an extended version of Mercury Blues, a song first penned in 1949 that\’s since been covered by a list ranging from Dwight Yoakam and David Lindley to Meat Loaf and the Steve Miller Band. We kept waiting for a Ford truck to drive on stage.
Opening for Jackson was George Canyon, the former police officer and beef inspector from Halifax who won a Juno Award for Best Country Music Recording for the single My Name, which also received significant airplay in the United States. His most recent album What I Do, released in November 2008, includes the most recent single In Your Arms Again, a duet with Crystal Shawanda. An advocate for childhood diabetes, his cool factor raised significantly when he appeared in two episodes of Trailer Park Boys, which is set in Nova Scotia. Canyon\’s set was crowd pleasing and a wonderful enhancement to the show-bill. Most opening acts don\’t rival George Canyon.
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