To end any speculation from those of you up in Section 322, no that wasn’t really Carrie Underwood that you saw duetting with at the on Saturday night (it was a hologram). But yes, that was Tim Tebow. And yes, he did squeak out a couple notes from Paisley’s “I’m Still A Guy” — to screeching applause.
Opening act Scotty McCreery of “American Idol” fame also elicited his own bevy of exhaustive shrills. Clipping through a scripted set of songs like “You Make That Look Good” and “I Love You This Big” — his golden boy aura glowed in a way that only Tebow’s can rival. Wholesome good looks melded with a deep leathery drawl equal one thing in country music: solid gold. To an industry fraught with languishing sales, McCreery is the music business equivalent to “Mile High Magic.”
The Band Perry, led by a trio of Tennessee siblings, make for a good storyline too. With a triple-platinum debut album to its credit, the band has picked up right where the Dixie Chicks derailed (minus the political detour). With a diverse sampling of covers from Tom Petty, Eminem and Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls,” Kimberly Perry and company proved that, if anything, country music holds sway as the vanguard of crossover appeal.
No one has laid this groundwork better than Brad Paisley. Sporting an “Energizer” T-shirt and his classic white Serratelli hat, Paisley made entertaining an arena full of rabid fans seem like a cool cakewalk. On “The World,” Paisley ripped through a dizzying guitar solo like Jeff Beck. Paisley then skipped across stage in a breezy rendition of “Ticks” — without as much as a second breath. Switching from acoustic to electric mid-song on “This Is Country Music,” Paisley even tossed his guitar into the crowd to one lucky fan. With showmanship this good, who needs a quarterback cameo?
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Kris K. Coe is a freelance writer, Denver-native, and regular contributor to Reverb.
Karson Brown is a Denver photographer and a regular contributor to Reverb.
