BRYAN WHITE SHOWS FAIR CROWD WHAT ALL THE SCREAMING'S ABOUT (REVIEW)

Co-headliner Rhett Akins had to leave the SEMO District Fair stage Friday night after just two songs because of an illness, but Bryan White and an estimated audience of 2,500 that included many screaming teen-age girls carried on a love fest quite well without him.

Akins, who took the stage first, admitted after his first number that he could hardly talk. He gave it one more try before excusing himself from the stage to a round of friendly applause. Fortunately, White more than held up his end of the bill.

The Oklahoman came to town surrounded by lots of teen idol hype, but in White's case the talent justifies all the attention. Nashville has itself a youth-market dream who looks and talks like a student body president and sings like a child of Ricky Skaggs and Whitney Houston might.

He says exactly the right things about the good ol' USA, mommas and country music, but that pretty, soulful voice would have taken him far even without the stage smarts and cover boy looks.

If country has become the new pop music, the charismatic White already is one of the genre's best practitioners. He bows to tradition by incorporating steel guitar into some of his upbeat numbers, but White loves rock 'n' roll, too. He generously let his young, long-haired sidemen show off talents that easily could have backed John Mellencamp 15 years ago.

It's not surprising that White began his career as a solo opening act for Pam Tillis, Tracy Lawrence and Diamond Rio. He has the stage presence of someone who has spent lots of time standing in front of a crowd with just a guitar.

His forte is the longing ballad. "I'm Not Supposed to Love You Anymore" is his recent No. 1 hit and could become a standard. He also sang "You Know What I Feel" with real tenderness.

The sweet "Rebecca Lynn" is another No. 1. You know you're in the presence of a bona fide phenomenon when the audience knows all the words and sings along. Same with "Someone Else's Star."

At 21, White already has a good idea of who he is. He definitely knows what the young girls want, coyly posing at the side of the stage for pictures and screams. But he also takes himself seriously as a musician, choosing to sing the country classic "Rollin' In My Sweet Baby's Arms" with style and then milking out a blues coda.

He obviously enjoys being onstage and reacted spontaneously to the audience's applause and screams. Maybe he's simply not old enough just to go through any motions.

For an encore he chose "Stand By Me," hardly a country standby but a song he said he'd been singing since he was 5. It showed.

If anybody left unhappy, it was the boys whose girlfriends walked away starry-eyed with posters and T-shirts picturing Bryan White.