Country’s Hottest Party 2009, featuring country music mega stars Gretchen Wilson and John Rich and their friends, Cowboy Troy and Jeffrey Steele, rocked the West suburban Pheasant Run Mega Center, Saturday night. The almost six hour “party”, covered everything from flag saluting and whiskey chuggin’ to songs about lovin’ and a flaming guitars.The evening’s co-headliner, Gretchen Wilson, hit the stage with her song, “Here for the Party” and that she was. Wilson, from Pocahontas, Illinois, said she was excited to be playing for an Illinois crowd and from what it seemed, the crowed felt the same. After playing most of her hit songs like “California Girls” and “Politically Uncorrect” as well as a few Journey cover songs, Wilson ended her hour-long, high-energy performance with her hit song, “Redneck Woman”.
But by the time Wilson took the stage, John Rich, Cowboy Troy and Jeffrey Steele had the crowd fired up, literally. Prior to Wilson performance, Rich with the help of Cowboy Troy, doused an acoustic guitar, donned with the word “Hell Yeah”, with lighter fluid and set it on fire and for an encore, smashed the guitar.
Rich’s musical performance was second-to-none. Fresh off the release of his newest solo single, “Shuttin’ Detroit Down”, Rich remarked that this was the first time his single was performed in concert. The song, in a powerful way, points-out the real problems facing today’s common man and addresses the fall of Wall Street and the effect it has on Main Street and working-class America. This isn’t a problem for just blue-collar or white-collar; this is a song about what everyone is facing and dealing with today. Rich also performed the Big & Rich hit, “Lost in this Moment” and a countrified version of the AC/DC song, “You Shook Me all Night Long.”
The evening started with Jeffrey Steele, the name is probably not one that you immediately recognize but as soon as you hear some of the songs he has written for acts like, Rascal Flatts, Montgomery Gentry and Van Zant, you will quickly be familiarized with his work. Steele quickly had the crowd singing along to popular country music hits like, “What Hurts the Most” and “Gone”.
On a side note, hats off to Pheasant Run and AStar Promotions for another crowd pleasing, expectation exceeding show. Country’s Hottest Party was excellent. The festival style performance is a great way to help break cabin fever during Chicago’s long winter months.
Just when we thought Pheasant Run would be taking a break till fall, they announced during the show that John Rich will be returning with his familiar side-kick, Big Kenny for a full-blown Big & Rich show during their limited-stop tour. The group will be coming to our city on July 26. Tickets go on sale March 14, at noon, on Ticketmaster.com.
CMC
See more photos, or upload your photos, of Country’s Hottest Party 2009 on our Facebook Page.
Related posts:
About CountryMusicChicago.com Staff
