Buffalo News (Oct. 21st 2007)

In the raw

Stripped-down shows help to introduce audiences to new acts in country music

You could call it naked country.

Just the singer with his or her voice and a guitar.

Yes, they get to keep their clothes. But they're shorn of the big electric band, the video screens, pyrotechnics and fog machines that have become the norm in country music's arena shows.

Naked country is what you get when you have a show like the one set for Tuesday in the University at Buffalo's Center for the Arts, when star Blake Shelton and stars-in-waiting Luke Bryan and Sarah Johns take the stage.

The three will be performing separate sets, either by themselves or with a guitarist. Acoustic sets are increasingly being used to break new artists in country music and have even become part of CMT's "Unplugged at Studio 330" show.

WYRK-FM has been involved in promoting most of the Buffalo-area acoustic showcases, and, according to Program Director Wendy Lynn, the shows have been building a distinct and loyal audience.

"Most people who go to the acoustic shows have come back again," Lynn said. "They know what they're in for; they know it's going to be more intimate."

It's also far less scripted than the arena-style shows at HSBC Arena or Darien Lake. There's no danger of anybody getting their jeans scorched if they're standing on the wrong part of the stage when the flames go up.

In fact, some shows are "guitar pulls," like the "Heartthrobs of Country" show last February at UB, where four performers (Kellie Pickler, Jake Owen, Steve Holy, Donovan Chapman) sat on stools, alternating songs and interacting with each other. They had never all played together before, and haven't since.

Shelton says he welcomes the acoustic format, perhaps because it's an alternative to his regular tour routine of playing with a five-piece band.

"I love to not have any excuses, have nothing to hide behind up there," said Shelton, whose biggest hits include "Austin" and the current hit, "The More I Drink."

"It's good to never let yourself get too far away from being able to pick up a guitar and play any song you want to, and still be good and entertaining when you do it."

Shelton said when he does the acoustic shows, he just brings himself and his guitar. And a backup guitar.

"The scariest thing is getting up there and breaking a string on your guitar. It's over, absolutely over. Talk about ruining the vibe."

Shelton is a nearly 10-year veteran of the Nashville recording scene. But for budding stars like Bryan and Johns, the acoustic shows are a matter of career advancement just when they're taking off.

Bryan's single "All My Friends Say" was a major hit this summer, and "We Rode in Trucks" could be just as big. Lynn described the song as putting Bryan "on the verge" of going big.

He already had some success as a songwriter, particularly with Travis Tritt's "Honky Tonk History."

Johns, meanwhile, had a small but notable hit earlier this year with "The One in the Middle," a song with a Loretta Lynn-tough attitude about what she'd like to give her former lover now.

For artists like Johns and Bryan, working with the radio stations is essential.

"They do radio tours, visiting different markets throughout the United States, kind of showing what they have," said Lynn. "They'll give us beginnings of albums that may not even be completed at the time, and they'll showcase the singles they're looking to showcase in the upcoming months."

There's also the issue that it's cheaper than bringing the band.

"A lot of smaller country acts don't want to come up into the Northeast and accept lower prices than they'd get in the south," said Dave Wedekindt, the marketing director for the Center for the Arts.

"We've found country music is hard to do in small venues in this town, but it plays well to the acoustics of this room, and it's an appropriate place for the family audience. Our other intent is to keep it affordable for everyone."

The Center for the Arts can hold an audience of 1,748, and tickets are $20. Some of the proceeds will go to the Food Bank of Western New York.

WYRK has also done acoustic shows at Club Paradise in Hamburg, including a show with Craig Morgan ("Redneck Yacht Club") and Taylor Swift ("Tim McGraw") last year. Lynn said her station has done about a half-dozen of those shows in the past few years.

For the performers and audience, though, the point is that the shows offer something real and perhaps more spontaneous than the more highly choreographed performances.

With apocryphal stories going around about performers whose voices or performances had been processed and manufactured in the studio and then been sweetened by backstage backups or tech tricks onstage, it's also a chance to prove to the audience that the performer is for real.

Shelton says he welcomes the challenge that comes with going it alone. He said he can't say what he'll be playing when he arrives on the UB stage, although it's safe to predict he'll play at least some of his hits.

"I don't ever have a plan when I do an acoustic thing," he said. "It's a way to hear some of the hits without all the color around it. It's just raw. People are interested in that. They want to hear the different versions of a song, or the original version of a song. Country music fans are that fanatical about it.

"And I'm the biggest country music fan in the world. All the time I'm listening and thinking of covers I can do. Sometimes I think one'll work and it won't, and other times I don't think it will and it will go over really well."

But whatever the result, it's all his to claim as his own.