ALABAMA LIVES UP TO HEADLINE BILLING

Sunday night's concert at the sold-out Show Me Center (attendance 7,064) gave music fans a chance to compare the king of country bands Alabama with heir apparent Diamond Rio.

The king is not dead.

Led by playful lead singer Randy Owen, Alabama cut loose with most of its hits they have recorded more than 30 No. 1 singles in a non-stop performance that showed why the band has been so popular for so long.

They played their being-in-love songs, growing up in the country songs, going back to the country songs and a song that says, "You're only dealt the queen of hearts once upon a lifetime."

"Once Upon a Lifetime," currently No. 3 on the Billboard chart, perhaps illustrates the band's appeal as well as any it has recorded. Owen, who donned a white jacket for the song, let his faultless voice carry the message of first times making love, holding your first-born to your chest.

Alabama, perhaps the most casually dressed band in country music today, does it with consummate musicianship and authenticity.

The hits just kept on coming. Performing a string of more than 25 songs to an audience that spent much of the time on its feet, Alabama could do no wrong and didn't even come close.

Not that Diamond Rio was disappointing, although the band's show somersaulted just this side of slickness at times.

Diamond Rio's showmanship was honed on the Opryland stage as the Tennessee River Boys and sometimes overshadowed the topflight musicianship. A bass-heavy mix that submerged guitarist Jimmy Olander also didn't help.

But when the boys just stepped out and played, their keen harmonies and Marty Roe's crackling solo voice reminded everyone what all the fuss is about.

The 1991 top vocal group, known for such hits as "Meet Me in the Middle" and the more recent "In a Week or Two," knows how to entertain.

The band's bluegrass breakdown at first seemed incongruent with the rest of the show, but there's probably no country audience that won't respond to the chestnuts "Beneath Still Waters" and "Orange Blossom Special" when they're well played. And they were.

The band's songs don't come quite as directly from the heart as Canadian singer Michelle Wright's.

Wright is perhaps the '90s linear descendent of Tammy Wynette. Whereas Wynette's was the emotion-drenched voice of a woman desperately trying to hold onto her man, the short-haired Wright struts the stage in a skintight jumpsuit insisting on finding a man who respects women and commitment ("Take It Like A Man.")

She's the woman who holds her head up when she thinks wistfully of the child given up for adoption long ago ("He Would Be 16.")

Her vibrant personality, rich voice and emotional bulls-eyes separate her from most of the beauty queens currently vying for the title of Miss Nashville.

The concert lasted more than 3 hours.