MORE THAN 5,000 TURN OUT FOR TRIO OF COUNTRY STARS

More than 5,000 fans were treated to a tasty country music sandwich Sunday night at the Show Me Center.

It began with traditionalist newcomer Tracy Lawrence and ended with "living legend" George Jones. In between came Marty Stuart and his flashy blend of honky-tonk and rock.

Taken together, the three-hour show was a testament to the cross-pollinization that has occurred in recent years between country and rock. Dry ice and whirling colored lights were everywhere, even in Jones' set.

Stuart, who took the stage in a coat that looked like it once belonged to a matador, uses these elements to the utmost, but his music proclaims his debt to rock 'n' roll the most. His "Western Girls" borrows directly from the Beach Boys yen for the California variety. And he opened with "Back to the Country," a Neil Young song.

But Stuart also mixed in whiskey-sippin' country music, from the heartbreak of "This One's Gonna Hurt You" to a fiddle breakdown.

All along the way, women squealed as he sashayed the stage.

Lawrence is a different kind of heartthrob, long and lean in the Alan Jackson, but possessing something of Jones way with phrasing. He even employs one of the master's patented techniques the bottomed out voice that drops everyone's jaws.

Lawrence is a young working man's singer, a number of his songs repeating the theme of the born loser. "Every time I make my mark, somebody paints the wall" is the trenchant line from one of his hits.

But even Lawrence closed his set by asking, "Are you ready to rock?" It's a question no country performer would have ventured only a few years ago.

Jones, who in recent years has lived down his nickname of "No-Show Jones," capped the evening by throwing a slight scare into the audience. He was announced but didn't walk on stage, leaving his bewildered band vamping.

It turned out Jones's guitar simply had been misplaced. He came on singing "No-Show Jones," a tune that makes fun of his own past unreliability.

But if one thing is reliable in the newly glossy world of country music these days, it's George Jones' classic voice. Though he often sings abridged versions of his hits, probably because there are so many, he has lost not one whit of the edge from his supple voice.

He inventively stretched the melody to his "He Stopped Loving Her Today" recently voted the number one country song of all time. The technique is another Jones patent.

Perhaps the highlight of his set was a little-known but touching tune called "She Loved a Lot in Her Time," which he dedicated "to all the mommas in the audience."

The song's proclamation that "I ain't touched a drink in 10 years" drew loud cheers.

The only disappointment in the set, aside from Jones' brief commercial for his line of dog food, was his failure to recognize keyboard player Kent Goodson, a Cape Girardeau native.

But at the end of the night, when Jones growled "My body's old but it ain't impaired/Honey, I don't need no rockin' chair" from his most recent hit, could anyone have left unconvinced?