With comfortable temperatures and cloudless skies, you couldn’t have asked for better weather Monday night for former Alabama singer and current solo artist Randy Owen’s Lorain County Fair grandstand show in Wellington.
Even though it’s been six years since Alabama’s swan-song tour, the singer didn’t show any rust with a set filled with plenty of familiar tunes and a new song from his 2008 debut solo album, “One On One.” His show kicked off in grand fashion with the Alabama hit “If You’re Gonna Play In Texas (You Gotta Have A Fiddle In The Band).” The up-tempo tune featured honky tonk keys, a lively fiddle and a hot guitar, which took the audience back to his Alabama years.
“We’re here because we’re from Wellington, and that’s what you do: you go to the fair,” said Shara Brosius, who saw Alabama at its height of fame in the 1980s at the old Richfield Coliseum. “It’s in your DNA. And Randy Owen was one of the reasons too. We spent all day here. He still sounds like Alabama. He hasn’t changed a lot.”
Added her longtime friend and Wellington resident Dorothy Shaw, “He’s loud.”
For his next track, the engaging singer-guitarist, who at times belied his age (57, if you’re scoring at home) by jumping all over the groove, turned up the rock with Alabama’s “Tennessee River.” In fact, it was pretty much all Alabama all the time, including the sing-along “Born Country” and the ballad “Old Flame.” The latter included an interlude to raise money for charity by allowing audience members who donated cash to get on stage and sing a line.
Owen led his group to 21 gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums with 42 No. 1 singles. Naturally there were plenty of tunes to pick from. So why not play the tunes? The audience sure didn’t seem to mind.
That was the case with the crowd singing “Songs Of The South” loud and proud. With the stage presence of a Music City professional, Owens kept the audience entertained with solid vocals, friendly banter and plenty of name-checking celebrities. He told stories about Dale Earnhardt Sr., Conway Twitty and Dolly Parton. The “9 to 5″ singer was mentioned before he performed the mid-tempo “Holding Everything,” which was written by Parton and is found on Owen’s solo album.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening was the empty seats, with only three-quarters of the venue filled. The economy even affects the fair. Still, those who came out enjoyed a fun dose of “Mountain Music.”
The show started off in an unexpected delayed fashion with one of Owen’s band members arriving late. In a pinch, his guitarist Wade Hayes, who enjoyed marginal Nashville success in the ’90s, actually opened the show. On a whim, the singer-guitarist delivered a solid, albeit brief, set performing material such as his No. 1 hit “Old Enough to Know Better,” the upbeat “Don’t Stop” and the ballad “The Day That She Left Tulsa (in a Chevy).”
Contact John Benson at 329-7155 or ctnews@chroniclet.com.
