POP MUSIC REVIEW : Fast-Food Alabama, Home-Cooked Clint Black

If fast food was country music, it would sound like Alabama: bland, predictable, nutritionless, the same menu at every location and--of course--billions served, including the wildly enthusiastic sold-out crowd at the Greek Theatre on Thursday. All that was missing was the grease.

With songs stitched together from simple sing-along melodies and feel-good greeting-card phrases, patter built around “Hello (fill in your town here)!” cheerleading and a presentation that seemed scripted in every detail (the pre-encore portion of the concert ran one hour on the nose ), Alabama showed just what can be achieved without even having to try.

Lead singer Randy Owen switched, as appropriate, from mugging funny man to patriotic booster to sentimental fool with all the depth of a lounge singer. In fact, the only time he stepped out from the script was to acknowledge all those important music industry folks at the show with a sappy version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” which he said the band used to do when it was a lounge act back in Myrtle Beach, S.C., many moons ago. At least he acknowledges his roots.

By comparison, opening act Clint Black is a home-cooked meal of biscuits and gravy. At the Greek, the grinning Texan showed the legitimate feel for various country traditions (from Bob Wills swing to Merle Haggard work ethic) that has placed him just a step away from joining Randy Travis and George Strait in mega-headliner matinee idol status.

But like Travis and Strait, Black seems all too willing to just slip easily into the cozy country envelope and showed little desire or inclination to push against it. Encoring with a Jimmy Buffett song hardly counts. Alabama and Black, joined by Suzy Bogguss, will be at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on July 15.