Trisha Yearwood September 24
Welcome to the Big Time:
Trisha Yearwood at Cerritos
By Glen Creason
Watching Trisha Yearwood sing is like admiring Tiger Woods play golf or Michael Jordan play basketball. She just sort of sings at the level others just gaze upon with mouths agape. The self-effacing young woman has one of the most powerful and expressive voices in all of music but projects a down home manner that makes her easy to love and great to listen to. And how she can sing! In one of the very best juicy slices of music to ever be served at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts La Yearwood gave us sixteen absolutely wonderful tunes, showcasing that towering voice and a band lead by a truly great guitarist named Johnny Garcia. By the third song in the set, a tremendously moving “This Song Remembers When” I had to say to myself “this is the reason I love country music.” At its best the genre gives us insight, emotion and simple lessons. Trisha Yearwood embodies all of those qualities but elevates the material with her extraordinary vocal gift. Possessing a stack of gold records, number one hits and a marriage to probably the most successful country singer ever the lady from small-town Georgia has never got a above her raising.
This was no weepy, barroom honky-tonk session but a lively, rather raucous at times performance that overflowed the boundaries of just Country and Western music. There were the C&W chart-toppers like “An American Girl,” “She’s In Love With the Boy,” “Thinking About You,” and “Believe Me Baby, I Lied” sung with pipes that not only could reach the back row of the hall but the peaks of the San Gabriels. If Trisha Yearwood was not so good on the rockers you might suggest that the lady was just born to sing ballads like the utterly exquisite “Georgia Rain,” the bittersweet “Walk Away Joe,” that transcendent “This Song…” and the swelling “Try Me Again,” all of which had audience dabbing at their eyes. As a seasoned pro Miss Yearwood introduced some delightful sounding new stuff including “Cowboys Are My Weakness,” and “They Call It Falling for a Reason” along with old up-tempo pulse-quickening material including “Pistol,” “Wrong Side of Memphis” and the lid-lifting “Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love.” The show closed at a full gallop and the fired up audience begged for one more and Trisha Yearwood and hot band gave them a wild and wooly send up of Chuck Berry’s classic barn-burner “Living in the USA”
The show was opened by the sassy, smart and sexy Amy Dalley who won the crowd over with her acerbic wit and playful songwriting, including the sharp-edged “All I Better Say About That,” the bittersweet “Let’s Try Goodbye” and the girl-pleasing anthem “Shoes Don’t Stretch and Men Don’t Change.” It didn’t hurt that the little lady had strong support from acoustic guitarist James Sizemore and rhythm guitarist Britton Cameron who blended with the lady perfectly on ballad and rocker. Miss Dalley also joined Trisha Yearwood in a red-hot “You’re No Good” where she more than held her own in duet with that huge Yearwood voice.
By Glen Creason
Watching Trisha Yearwood sing is like admiring Tiger Woods play golf or Michael Jordan play basketball. She just sort of sings at the level others just gaze upon with mouths agape. The self-effacing young woman has one of the most powerful and expressive voices in all of music but projects a down home manner that makes her easy to love and great to listen to. And how she can sing! In one of the very best juicy slices of music to ever be served at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts La Yearwood gave us sixteen absolutely wonderful tunes, showcasing that towering voice and a band lead by a truly great guitarist named Johnny Garcia. By the third song in the set, a tremendously moving “This Song Remembers When” I had to say to myself “this is the reason I love country music.” At its best the genre gives us insight, emotion and simple lessons. Trisha Yearwood embodies all of those qualities but elevates the material with her extraordinary vocal gift. Possessing a stack of gold records, number one hits and a marriage to probably the most successful country singer ever the lady from small-town Georgia has never got a above her raising.
This was no weepy, barroom honky-tonk session but a lively, rather raucous at times performance that overflowed the boundaries of just Country and Western music. There were the C&W chart-toppers like “An American Girl,” “She’s In Love With the Boy,” “Thinking About You,” and “Believe Me Baby, I Lied” sung with pipes that not only could reach the back row of the hall but the peaks of the San Gabriels. If Trisha Yearwood was not so good on the rockers you might suggest that the lady was just born to sing ballads like the utterly exquisite “Georgia Rain,” the bittersweet “Walk Away Joe,” that transcendent “This Song…” and the swelling “Try Me Again,” all of which had audience dabbing at their eyes. As a seasoned pro Miss Yearwood introduced some delightful sounding new stuff including “Cowboys Are My Weakness,” and “They Call It Falling for a Reason” along with old up-tempo pulse-quickening material including “Pistol,” “Wrong Side of Memphis” and the lid-lifting “Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love.” The show closed at a full gallop and the fired up audience begged for one more and Trisha Yearwood and hot band gave them a wild and wooly send up of Chuck Berry’s classic barn-burner “Living in the USA”
The show was opened by the sassy, smart and sexy Amy Dalley who won the crowd over with her acerbic wit and playful songwriting, including the sharp-edged “All I Better Say About That,” the bittersweet “Let’s Try Goodbye” and the girl-pleasing anthem “Shoes Don’t Stretch and Men Don’t Change.” It didn’t hurt that the little lady had strong support from acoustic guitarist James Sizemore and rhythm guitarist Britton Cameron who blended with the lady perfectly on ballad and rocker. Miss Dalley also joined Trisha Yearwood in a red-hot “You’re No Good” where she more than held her own in duet with that huge Yearwood voice.
posted by Glen Creason | 1:24 PM
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