Brooks Offers Feeling, Dunn Tries Technique

In country music, persuasive feeling beats faultless technique as surely as a full house beats a straight. It’s no mystery, then, why the fans at Saturday’s double bill at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim greeted opener Garth Brooks with unbridled warmth, while giving only mild applause to headliner Holly Dunn.

Brooks brought a middlin’ voice and a passable band to the proceedings, but his humble manner and his ability to sing with convincing feeling about cowboys, barflies and rodeo riders stood him in good stead during his 70-minute set. The audience couldn’t get enough of him.

The top-billed Dunn is a slender beauty who sang flawlessly with backing from a masterful band. But for all of Dunn’s technical excellence, her performance was emotionally cool and distant. Her hourlong set contained few moments when she seemed to be living the songs she was singing, instead of just performing them.