RIMES ADDS MAJESTY OF `VOICE'; JACKSON APPEAL (CONCERT REVIEW)

From established country star Alan Jackson, Thursday night's sold-out audience at the Show Me Center got the expected high-tech hit parade most had come to hear. From 14-year-old LeAnn Rimes, the audience got affirmation that hers already is one of the great voices in country music.

Altogether, the audience of 7,029 was treated to 3 1/2 hours of some of the best entertainment Nashville has going.

Backed by a six-piece band, Rimes wowed listeners with more than the soaring notes she bull's-eyed on such tunes as "Unchained Melody" and the Grammy-winning "Blue."

Almost as impressive was her handling of the country chestnut "Blue Moon of Kentucky." She began with a bluesy, slowed-down acappella introduction, kicking into a "country roll" version that practically achieved liftoff. Sorry, Bill Monroe, that was good.

Refusing to stop at offending one great, Rimes pulled off a jazzy rendition of Hank Williams' "I'm so Lonesome I Could Die." That was good, too.

Dressed in a black leather pantsuit, Rimes strode the stage with less command than she'll someday have. But that was the only reminder that this is a girl of 14 years.

She co-wrote two of the songs in her set, both highly listenable, and redeemed even the two or three mundane tunes with her dreamy upper register.

The line "Are you still mine" from "Unchained Melody" is probably still reverberating around the Show Me Center.

In his last appearance at the Show Me Center, Jackson filled the stage with a multitude of video screens and cameramen, turning his show into a multi-media event. The approach was different but as innovative this time as multiple images formed a collage on a large single screen behind the singer.

In "Little Bitty," for instance, the images in an arrangement of photo snapshots changed constantly, alternating between live shots of performers and the crowd and scenes from the video.

"Chasin' that Neon Rainbow," one of the first of the singer's 20-plus No. 1 hits, was illustrated with charming photos from his childhood.

The lanky, blond, soft-spoken Jackson isn't country music's best singer but he does have "Aw, shucks" appeal, especially to women. His languorous walks across the stage and little turns at the mike never failed to draw delighted squeals.

And his songs, most of which he wrote or co-wrote, tell authentic stories about loving your parents and struggling with life and love. These are the essence of country music, and the sincerity the songs capture is the main reason Jackson is so popular.

Some of the best moments in his set occurred during the "half-wired" section in which his talented sidemen gathered around with acoustic instruments. He talked about how the abbreviated tunes were written, and his humor came through as he recalled trying to write a song for Faith Hill.

"Gone Country," in which he proclaimed "Cape Girardeau's gone country," was another high point. It's too bad the clunker was his encore, the rousing David Lindley driving tune "Mercury."

On current TV commercials for an automobile company, Jackson performs the song with altered lyrics meant to sell a certain brand of truck.

It's impossible to imagine that Jackson included the company's name in the lyric of the last verse just for fun, thus exploring new depths of crass commercialism.