Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” the Bon Jovi/Jennifer Nettles duet that launched the current crop of country-rock crossovers (we’re skunk-eyein’ you, Missouri native Sheryl Crow), plays overhead in the Events Center Showroom at Fitzgeralds. Rock memorabilia lines the walls, while images of slo-mo combines and cattle fill the front screen. And, because it’s Vegas, the dark-suited usher lifts a velvet rope when audience members enter. Leave it to Country Superstars Tribute—the new show housed in an Irish-castle-themed casino run by Vegas’ first black casino owner—to inject a bit of Midwestern red-blood into a mountain-surrounded municipality in the Mojave Desert.
“Good evening, y’all,” the overhead announcer intones, prefacing the “real country music, the way it was meant to be ... from the heart.”
Indeed, Johnny; who says you can’t. Anyone raised around grain bins and field parties has caught the featured Top Tenners at the county fairgrounds, or at least on CMT, and in a city of rampant neon and nudity, it’s comforting to see some familiar faces from a time spent riding four-wheelers to the convenience store down the road and fishing for snapping turtles with a shotgun. Or some familiar-ish faces, at least. As with most impersonators, the facial features are just a bit off. But squint and it’s like puking up that funnel cake on the Gravitron
all over again.
Ronnie Dunn impersonator Ronnie Lee Keel
A five-piece band behind them and headset mics at the ready, Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn (Eric York and Ronnie Lee Keel, respectively) take the stage for “Play Something Country” and “Red Dirt Road” before introducing Faith Hill (Cathy “C.C.” Carter), whose “Let’s Go to Vegas” and “Mississippi Girl” earn a few whoops from the crowd as a mounted block of colored lights throws rainbow circles around the room. Husband Tim McGraw (Dave Hoover) appears for “Let’s Make Love,” then takes his turn in the spotlight with the question, “We got any rednecks in the house?” and the singalong “I Like It, I Love It.” Brooks and Dunn reappear, only to re-reappear again after Shania Twain (Carter again) conjures up images of Fran Drescher with her leopard-print, midriff-baring ensemble (including hatbox) for “That Don’t Impress Me Much.” A little cowbell, crowd participation and “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” courtesy of B&D before “The Big Dog, Toby Keith” (Tim Tracy) gets a few people standing—and the biggest cheers of the hour and 15 minutes—with his flag vest and “American Soldier.”
No special appearances by Garth Brooks or Willie Nelson tonight (or how sweet would a Johnny Cash song or two be?), but all five tip their 10-gallons to outlaw rock n’ roll with closer “Viva Las Vegas.” Now that’s crossover appeal. Colonel Parker would’ve been proud.
Impersonator photograph by Iris Dumuk