Blake Shelton brought his friends for a night of country at TD Garden
Shelton kicked things off with the bar-is-open anthem 'Pour Me A Drink.' With a baritone that he was perpetually revving up, Shelton leaned into the persona he long honed on 'The Voice,' a rascal never pushing so hard that he ended up at 'jerk.' 'A Guy With A Girl' was humility delivered with cockiness, while the Jimmy Buffett-recalling (and -referencing) 'Some Beach' winked at its sideways-naughty title without being overly coy about it. And if he was slick enough to keep singing even as he autographed an onstage fan's sign during 'All About Tonight,' he still didn't sacrifice the song's good-time jolt.
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The career-leapfrogging jump from his very first single (the slow but heavy-hitting 'Austin,' where he changed a key line to 'Can't you tell, this is Boston, and I still love you'), to his latest ('Texas') inadvertently catalogued Shelton's drift from affecting country weeper to Post Malone-style pan-genre featurelessness.. So the periodic arrival of his support acts, each one taking the stage and singing with zero fanfare or introduction, served the additional purpose of grounding him in the genre that birthed him.
Morgan was laid-back and comfy on 'That's What I Love About Sunday' and dug in for a little more grit on the chugging thump of 'International Harvester.' With more molasses in his deep-voiced drawl and his hat pulled low over his eyes, Trace Adkins played everything close to the vest, but he had a relaxed command on the down and dirty groan of 'Honky Tonk Badonkadonk' and the pre-nostalgia of 'You're Gonna Miss This.'
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Shelton performing with Craig Morgan, Trace Adkins, and Deana Carter.
Jamie Wendt
Best of all was Deana Carter, who came out joyous and strummy with 'We Danced Anyway' – which suggested Sixpence None The Richer playing 'I Hope You Dance' – and 'How Do I Get There' before wrapping up with a lovely 'Strawberry Wine,' a slow dance held tight. All four singers performed an acoustic set together at the tip of the stage, with one song from each, as the others joined with almost offhand vocals and guitar. Carter shone there, too, with 'You And Tequila,' a raw nerve of a song sung in a weary, defeated voice.
From there, Shelton took things home with George Strait's Western-swinging 'All My Ex's Live In Texas,' the rolling clomp of Alabama's 'Mountain Music' and the dark, twangy glare of 'God's Country,' complete with heavy, Bonham-esque drums. The good-natured bluster and sneer of 'Boys 'Round Here' brought things to a temporary close before an encore of 'God Gave Me You' closed things for real on a note of gratitude. 'God almighty, man, I love country music,' Shelton said as he launched into that final stretch, and he didn't make it hard to see why.
Emily Ann Roberts was the only artist of the night to get a dedicated set all to herself, which was both a blessing and a curse. Her opening slot, covering girls'-night-out sass, frisky Appalachian boot-stompers and devotional music, had the feel of her being left out (with an undercurrent of an acknowledgement that she was still too green to sit at the big kids' table), but it also gave her a chance to breathe that not even the headliner was afforded.
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BLAKE SHELTON
Featuring Craig Morgan, Deana Carter, Trace Adkins, with Emily Ann Roberts
At: TD Garden, Friday, March 7
Marc Hirsh can be reached at
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