Lost Roots but Winning Country Charm

Reba McEntire is a frustrating figure. She’s a singer of great passion and ability. She respects her fans. She keeps busy touring, making records, making movies. She never complains. The only missing ingredient is great song material.

The country superstar long ago abandoned old school country and western as her main muse, turning instead toward anonymous pop songs that keep her on the charts yet hold her back as an artist. Saturday at the Pond in Anaheim, McEntire demonstrated how she’s held onto her devoted audience--with her commitment to show biz.

McEntire again showed the same kind of easy charm and versatility that in an earlier generation virtually guaranteed one an offer to host a TV variety show. The Saturday concert was a co-headlining gig with the duo Brooks & Dunn, but it was McEntire who commanded the most crowd excitement with a nine-person band, a sophisticated stage (complete with trap doors), multiple costume changes and the video clips she shows every year.

There were oddly compelling musical moments, such as the quasi-metal guitar riff that opened her early hit “Fancy,” turning the rootsy cautionary tale into a rock epic. The singer also returned to high-energy honky-tonk on “Wrong Night” and was backed by a trio of acoustic guitars on “The Greatest Man I Never Knew,” a moving tribute to her late father, a champion steer roper.

Strangely, even as McEntire epitomizes the unfortunate pop turn Nashville has taken, the singer also outclasses most of her competition. Her material may too often be paper-thin emotionally, but McEntire’s performance is never less than genuine.

Brooks & Dunn are less inclined toward the cosmopolitan, and they didn’t change their clothes once. But the hit-making duo shared much of McEntire’s inclination toward showmanship. The McEntire-Brooks & Dunn double bill is a reprise of their joint tour last year, which was the highest-grossing country tour of 1997.

The music of Brooks & Dunn is as slick as straight-ahead country gets, where even the fiddle is lost within the smooth wall of sound. On Saturday, the duo often fell short of the most memorable country, but they occasionally touched an emotional nerve below the pop surface. They were at their best when slowing down for some old-time honky-tonk blues, singing of good ol’ boys and country miles.

Between Kix Brooks’ manly ribbing of Ronnie Dunn for his big hair and tight pants, the band performed new songs from their “If You See Her” album, alongside older material, including the 1991 hit, “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” which was accompanied by giant inflatable boots on stage.

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Earlier in the evening, singer Terri Clark chose to cut a little closer to the bone. Dressed in all-black cowgirl duds, Clark was a chatty host and sang most convincingly on traditional love ballads, even if it’s the slick crossover likes of “Now That I’ve Found You” that has delivered her to the country charts.

Like McEntire, the younger Clark sang with energy and sass, banging a cowbell while belting passionately through the Linda Ronstadt hit “Poor Poor Pitiful Me.” Clark was a playful, likable character on stage, without having to work too hard at it.