Pop : Black Lets the Songs Speak in Irvine Meadows Concert
LAGUNA HILLS — Trendy is the word associated with country music these days, and while that may bode well for the cash register, it’s not necessarily good for the art--witness the defection from Nashville of such insightful and adventurous young songwriter/performers as Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith and Rosanne Cash.
Unlike them, the popular Clint Black is one of Nashville’s favored sons right now. But, happily, the word for Black’s show Saturday at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre wasn’t trendy but solid .
Black’s singing was controlled and firm, letting good material speak for itself without trying to show off or over-dramatize. His band was powerful and beautifully drilled, kicking hard or swinging confidently from song to song. The 75-minute set was helped along by an intelligent structure and by the occasionally adventurous bent that the songwriting partnership of Black and Hayden Nicholas sometimes takes.
Nashville’s commercial song factories simply don’t come up with material as dark, personal and strange as “Wake Up Yesterday,” which explored deep intimations of mortality and feelings of existential dread. The song was well-received, evidence that country fans don’t need to suck on formula all the time.
Backed by a fine, fiddle-driven band, second-billed Aaron Tippin offered an appealing, reedy and rusticated voice that harked back to the Hank Williams tradition more than most ‘90s arrivals on the country scene. But, pressed for time in a 23-minute set, Tippin’s performance seemed overheated. Twenty-odd minutes was too much of openers Little Texas, a simultaneously slick and ham-handed band that couldn’t decide which to imitate more: the Eagles or Bon Jovi.
