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| Jo Dee Messina |
I'm sitting at my keyboard trying to figure out how to review a
performance that's only five songs and about 25 minutes total. See,
that's all Jo Dee Messina got when she opened up for the opening act
for Brooks & Dunn. Well, I tend to ramble on sometimes, so let's
see where this leads us.
Like most of the rest of the country, my first experience of Jo
Dee was hearing "Heads Carolina, Tails California" on my
local country station. I thought it was a good song with a nice
hook. Then by chance I got to see her open up for Toby Keith who was
opening for Joe Diffie, and from the rafter seats of the Rosemont
Theatre I was duly impressed by her voice, wished the stage set-up
was different for her, and thought she might just have a future on
her hands. She did, however, seem a little timid in front of the
crowd, using the microphone stand as a security shield, and my
thought was
unless she gets from behind that mike stand and performs I doubt
I'll be hearing more from her. But this time around, in front of the
twenty-thousand some odd fans at the Rosemont Horizon, Jo Dee
Messina showed that she should be a country artist to be reckoned
with.
What stuck me about Jo Dee Messina this time was at how confident
she has become on stage. From the moment she bounced on stage,
rather than hide behind a microphone stand, she worked the entire
audience, strutting back and forth across the stage. It's hard to
captivate a crowd when you've only got five songs to do it, but I
guess when you've got two radio hits, her latest one being
"You're Not in Kansas Anymore," half the battle is done.
She used those hits to her advantage, but used her voice and
attitude to win over the early arrivals this night.
I like Jo Dee Messina and think all of the potential is there for
her to make it in the long run, especially with the change in
attitude from the first time I saw her. She's a lot more fun to see
live than before. My only fear is that she'll be another one of
those artists that ends up in the "one CD" trap and I
won't hear anything from her in the future. I also hope to see her
either headlining a tour, or at least given more than a five song
show. If she can captivate a crowd with five songs, it would be
great to see her bust through a one to two hour set eventually.
Jo Dee Messina this time around gets TWO THUMBS UP!! Here's
hoping her next release is as solid as the first, and she gets the
chance to play for more than 25 minutes.
That's it for this one, I'm the Dude on the Right!! L8R!! |
