Country diva dominates with simple mannerisms
By BILL REED THE GAZETTE
Reba McEntire has made a fine career out of playing the gal next door. Sunday night, she did it again, turning the World Arena into a cozy front porch swing. She has the resume of a diva. Fifty million albums sold and three greatest hits collections. A stint as a Broadway darling in “Annie Get Your Gun.” A sitcom on WB that bears her name. And a reputation that allows her to go by one name: Reba. But her fans seem to call her by her first name out of familiarity rather than pretention. Reba, 49, rose through the floor of the stage in black sequins and her signature red hair. Her eight-piece rock band threatened to drown her out, but Reba’s southeastern Oklahoma twang cut through the noise. Her catalog is a collection of mostly mediocre songs and a few standouts. In the 90-minute show, Reba managed to show off some of her best material. “Whoever’s in New England” is a worthy relic of ’80s country. Reba’s voice was made for the country swagger of “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.” And the band finally quieted down and switched to acoustic instruments for the tear-jerker “The Greatest Man I Never Knew.” Maybe it’s because she was raised on a working cattle ranch with a father who liked to rodeo, maybe it’s her genuine smile, two-stepping feet and red hair, maybe it’s her ability to smirk at her own popularity. Whatever it is, Reba is dern likeable. And that, more than her songs, more than her big brassy voice, explains why she’s done so well. She finished the night with “Fancy,” about a girl who is “poor white trash” but finds her way into a mansion. Even as Reba sank back into the stage before 5,000 screaming fans, she reminded me more of Fancy than a natural-born diva.
KEVIN KRECK, THE GAZETTE - HERE INSTEAD: Reba McEntire was named best female country artist Sunday at the American Music Awards.
