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| Neal McCoy livens up first night of Country Thunder | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| By Chris Hansen Orf, Get Out | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| April 18, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
What a difference a year makes. Exclusive: Blogging 2008's Country Thunder Country Thunder USA 2008’s opening day could not have been more pleasant, as Thursday’s moderate temps and bright sunshine invigorated the announced crowd of 15,000 country fans (way up from last year’s opening-day attendance), and with nice weather predicted through Sunday and a handful of popular headlining acts set to perform at Canyon Moon Ranch in Florence over the next three days, the party is off to a great start. Neal McCoy — a popular live act at previous Country Thunder USA festivals who was promoted to headliner this year — was a good choice to kick the fest into gear, as the affable, self-described “Texapino” (his dad’s a Texan and his mom’s a Filipina) throws in enough comedy and shtick around his country hits to keep a crowd in good spirits. View a slideshow from Thursday's Country Thunder Sandwiched around such honky tonkin’ McCoy standards as “Wink,” “They’re Playin’ Our Song” and “The City Put the Country Back in Me,” the singer, after telling the crowd he graduated from high school in 1976, played a tongue-in-cheek disco medley that included Wild Cherry’s “Play that Funky Music,” The Village People’s “YMCA” and “In the Navy,” and Kool and The Gang’s “Ladies Night,” as well as a cover of The Bus Boys’ “Boys are Back in Town” as the set opener. If music hadn’t worked out for McCoy, he may have been a stand-comedian, as his off-the-cuff crowd banter produced plenty of laughs, especially a gag where he carded a young girl drinking beer in front of the stage, then played the theme song from “Cops.” Before McCoy, one of country’s young-gun hitmakers, Joe Nichols, took the stage as the sun was setting, and played a fine set of his neo-traditionalist honky-tonk and hard country ballads. Alternating between upbeat hits such as “What’s a Guy Gotta Do,” “Brokenheartsville” and the No. 1 smash “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” — plus hit ballads such as “The Impossible,” “She Only Smokes When She Drinks” and “I’ll Wait for You” — Nichols’ baritone was in fine form Thursday and it’s not inconceivable that in a year’s time, Nichols might be back at Country Thunder headlining his own night. Stay tuned for more concert reviews from Friday’s Country Thunder USA, when hot country duo Sugarland, former Creedence Clearwater Revival singer/songwriter and solo artist John Fogerty and Texan Pat Green all take to the main stage. Contact Chris Hansen Orf by email, or phone (480) 898-5684 |
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