March 4th, 2018

 

Country superstar Miranda Lambert brought her Livin’ Like A Hippie tour to a packed Wolstein Center on Saturday night.  The multi-platinum selling artist had her legions of female fans in attendance and by my estimation the girls outnumbered the guys by a three to one margin.  

 

Opening the show with John Prine’s “That’s The Way The World Goes ‘Round,” Lambert and her tight eight-piece backing band were firing on all cylinders from the start.

 

Wearing a blue skirt, a black blouse with white and blue fringe on the arms and cowboy boots, the 34 year-old worked the stage and effortlessly interacted with her band.  She's a great entertainer and is clearly having fun up on that stage.

 

She played songs from throughout her 17-year career but concentrated on the 2016 release The Weight Of These Wings by playing six songs from that album including “Highway Vagabond,” “We Should Be Friends” and “Pink Sunglasses.”

 

Of course, several other hits were played like “Gunpowder & Lead,” “Hell On Heels” and a nice rendition of her first number one hit,“The House That Built Me.”

 

Towards the end of the set Lambert pulled out a cover of Cleveland’s favorite adopted son, Joe Walsh and his seminal “Rocky Mountain Way.”

 

Lambert closed the show with “Little Red Wagon,” leaving Ohio’s country music fans with a smile on their face.

 

Opening the show was 2017’s Country Music Awards Artist Of The Year winner, Jon Pardi.  He got the crowd dancing in their seats with tunes like “Heartache On The Dance Floor” and “Head Over Boots.” 

 

The Steel Woods kicked off this night of country music with a more southern rock sound.  They played a great cover of the Allman Brothers' “Whipping Post” as well as a few tunes from their debut album Straw In The Wind.  
 

Review and photos by Greg Drugan