Tim McGraw holds Blossom crowd in palm of his hand
by Chuck Yarborough/Plain Dealer Reporter Thursday July 03, 2008, 1:52 AM


Everybody knows that Tim McGraw is the high school jock all the girls wanted to date. He's the buddy all the guys wanted to have alongside if those mugs from Crosstown High got in your face at the barn dance. He's the kid who cut poor Old Lady Simpson's grass just because it needed mowin' as well as the dude who could score a six-pack for the big party. And, as Tracy Lawrence sang to great success earlier this year, he's the guy who'd drive 50 miles to get you if your danged pickup broke down again.

The answer to the old riddle about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin remains unsolved, but if you were at Blossom Music Center Wednesday night, you know how many Tim McGraw fans can boot-scoot in one man's honky-tonky hand: more than 15,000.

For almost two hours and 20 songs, including four - count 'em, FOUR - encores, McGraw kept the crowd on its collective feet. Why is that? It could be the buff bod, it could be the songs, or or it could be something else.

Call it charisma. Whatever it is, if cars could run on the stuff, OPEC would be panhandling tomorrow.

McGraw and his band, the Dancehall Doctors, have been together for almost two decades. Their familiarity has bred nothing but excellence. And the two newest members of the band, Nashville's singing- and songwriting siblings, the Warren Brothers, have only added to that. Brett and Brad Warren, who teamed with McGraw to write the haunting "If You're Reading This'' about a soldier who's lost his life in combat, have added new spice to one of the longest musical marriages in Nashville.

The progeny of that union - from the poignant "Kristofferson'' to the raucous if politically incorrect "Indian Outlaw'' - is only going to get better when McGraw's new CD comes out this fall, at least judging from a couple of songs off it that rang out Wednesday night. He opened the show with a melodic tune called "Still,'' but it's a rowdy ode to everyone from Billy Graham to Rosa Parks called "Southern Voice'' that is almost guaranteed a spot at No. 1.

A pair of warm-up acts did nothing to detract from McGraw's performance,
either. Jason Aldean, the man behind "Hicktown,'' "Johnny Cash'' and "Relentless,'' is a solid country performer. His range is a bit limited, but he has the same ability to capture the imagination of an audience as McGraw.

But it was opening act Halfway to Hazard that was the surprise hit of the evening. Chad Warrix and David Tolliver were nominated for top duo in this year's Academy of Country Music Awards. As Tolliver noted, they lost out to perennial champs Brooks & Dunn. But the guys behind "Countrified'' and "I Know Where Heaven Is'' are right in that venerable pair's rear view mirror. Next time they come through Northeast Ohio, it could be Halfway to Hazard that's headlining.