Terri Clark, January 11th, 2008, Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada
From
the time that country singer/songwriter and guitarist Terri Clark took to the
stage at Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver Canada, on January 11th,
there never was a doubt that she was about to throw a spectacular party, and
that her adoring fans were more than willing to participate. Clark, the only
Canadian female singer to ever be admitted to Nashville’s Grande Ole Opry,
endeared herself to the crowd immediately with her down home charm and
easygoing stage presence.
The First Lady of Canada’s country music scene opened her set with “I Want To Have A Good Time,” a song that would set the mood for the party that was about to begin. She followed up her opening number with “Better Things To Do,” a song which went all the way to # 3 on the Billboard’s Hot Country Singles and Track in 1995, and then led her backup band into another top ten song, her cover of Warren Zevon’s “Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me.”
Clark romped her way through “Girls Want To,” swiveled her hips to “Dirty Girl,” and melted hearts with the tune, “Now That I’ve Found You.” (How I Feel—1998). The singer’s fans, who had long since relinquished their seats, were dancing, and singing the words to her songs. This was a love-in, Terri Clark style, and her fans were more than willing to take part, especially when she did some woman-to-woman bonding with her # 2 hit, “I Just Wanna Be Mad,” (Pain To Kill—2003) and her # 1 song, “Girls Lie To.” (Terri Clark Greatest Hits 1994-2004)
The country music sweetheart was sassy, sexy, and earthy, as she bantered with the audience. She changed guitars more often than you could count, and other than the acoustic guitar (s), it did not appear that she used the same electric guitars more than once during her performance.
Placing a chair near the front of the stage, Clark doffed her cowboy hat, and with acoustic guitar in hand, she swaggered into the ballad “Gypsy Blues,” as the backup band left her and the audience to do some one on one, soul searching. Clark prefaced her next song, “No Fear,” a tune she wrote with Mary Chapin-Carpenter, by saying “Every time I sing this song, I realize how lucky I am, to be doing what I am doing.”
It would be easy for an artist who has sold in excess of five million records to become complacent about her live performances, but Clark refuses to rest on her laurels. She backs up her studio successes by leaving it all on stage. Her performance was high energy, personable and always fun.
During her set, Clark unveiled a song or two from her CD My Next Life scheduled to be released by BNA Records in April of this year.
With all due respect, to some terrific country singers such as Michelle Wright and Shania Twain, Terri Clark has been Canada’s ambassador for country music for the past thirteen years, and one gets the impression that is just the first chapter of what has already been a remarkable career. We can hardly wait to see what she has in store for us during the next thirteen years.
Reviewed by Joe Montague for Riveting Riffs (www.rivetingriffs.com)
Reviewed January 11, 2008
Riveting Riffs wishes to thank Live Nation for making it possible for us to review this Gig
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