Concert review: Martina McBride earns major country-star status Saturday at Xcel in St. Paul
By Rob Hubbard
Special to the Pioneer Press
Updated: 11/21/2009 11:42:46 PM CST


When country music chanteuse Martina McBride went retro four years ago, releasing a collection of covers of songs that first emanated from rural radios in the 1950s and '60s, it seemed a bold new direction for her, as well as an unassailable bow to her influences.

But at St. Paul's Xcel Center on Saturday night, McBride made it clear that she's completely current on what's selling out of Nashville these days. Headlining a double bill with honky-tonker Trace Adkins, McBride spent the second night of her tour demonstrating that she still has one of the best voices in country music, even if much of her material sounds more like power-chord-laden 'classic rock' than the twangy tunes to which she once paid allegiance.

And McBride certainly looked the part of a rocker, wearing a strategically shredded black, silver and stilettos ensemble that she could have borrowed from Pat Benatar. Striding about a stage as large as what remained of the main floor at the Xcel, she exuded the air of a rock star. But what could have come off as an artificial persona was swept aside by the pure power of McBride's voice. Her 18-song set was filled with spectacular singing, the emotion she poured out clearly transfixing most of the audience of 5,800.

Among the awe-inspiring performances were a heartbreaking "Walk Away" — delivered while sitting on the lip of the stage — a stirring version of Bill Withers' "Lean on Me" with gospel-flavored vocal ornamentation that would
make Beyonce jealous, and a wrenching take on Kris Kristofferson's "Help Me Make It Through the Night."
But McBride wasn't the only exceptional musician on stage. Each member of her seven-piece band had an impressive solo turn. The most memorable came when fiddler Jennifer Wrinkle opened "Concrete Angel" with a haunting take on the 19th-century folk tune "Wayfaring Stranger." But she was soon upstaged by McBride, who delivered the ballad while soaring above the audience on an incandescent sliver of blue moon.

If this tour is intended to reassert McBride's status as a major country star, then Saturday's show certainly made her case well. Alas, the same couldn't be said for Adkins. He boasts a rich bass voice that could loosen floorboards, but seemed far more relaxed in the videos that accompanied every number than he did trying to relate with the audience as he ambled about the stage uncomfortably. His ballads were his best efforts, especially the weeper "You're Gonna Miss This."
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