Clint Black and Friends Play New Songs and Greatest Hits

If Clint Black ever decides that the country music thing isn’t working out, he’s all set to go on tour with Steely Dan.

So it seemed near the end of his 2 1/2-hour show Sunday at the Greek Theatre, when he set down his guitar, sat behind the drums and led his 11-man band through the Dan’s “Josie.”

It was a rare I’ll-do-it-because-I-can indulgence for Black, yet even in this case, his professionalism was evident--he’d obviously worked at it long enough to make sure the song’s shifting tempos and textures were on the money.

His commitment to his own music was strong in the show’s first half as he played nearly everything off his latest album, “D’lectrified,” an acoustic-instrument survey of Black’s wide-ranging musical influences.

The second half brought the electric guitars and his biggest hits to the stage, including his recent duet “When I Said I Do,” which he sang earnestly with his celeb wife, Lisa Hartman Black.

What sets Black apart from most of his peers--other than the chiseled good looks and a Haggardesque voice powerful enough to slice concrete--is the unflagging craftsmanship in songs he writes with longtime partner (and touring guitarist) Hayden Nicholas.

One day their passion may again fully equal their writing savvy and Black will turn out another album as formidable as his first.