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Lambert's Country Fire Kick-Starts Crowd

Tribune photo by Jason Behnken

Miranda Lambert's performance Friday at the Florida Strawberry Festival finished strong.

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By JEFF HOUCK, The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 1, 2008

PLANT CITY - Thirteen songs into her set Friday night at the Florida Strawberry Festival, country music singer Miranda Lambert finally lost her patience with the crowd.

Except for a handful of energetic whoops at various times throughout the first two-thirds of the concert at the festival soundstage, the most the crowd could muster for Lambert and her five-member band was polite applause.

Maybe the chilly temperatures at the outdoor venue threw a blanket on their mood. Maybe it was because the seating at the festival soundstage was only about 30 percent full. Maybe it was because every barnstormer song she performed was diluted by a following ballad.

Regardless, the muted enthusiasm was causing the 24-year-old from southwest Texas to be distracted and disengaged when her razor-sharp lyrics required otherwise.

She'd just finished her most muscular song to date, the wronged-woman revenge ditty "Gunpowder & Lead." The song fell flat among the crowd despite a tight performance by her band.

The lack of energy finally lit Lambert's fuse.

"Y'all about ready to stand up and have a good time?" she asked with no small amount of vinegar in her tone.

And with that, Lambert kicked the audience in the face with a rowdy version of The Faces' "Stay With Me" and rescued what could have been a disastrous night.

The result was an 18-song performance that finished strong and showcased Lambert's powerful vocals and equally powerful lyrics.

If there was a barometer for how the show was going, it had to be her thick, brassy blond mane. After strapping on a cotton-candy pink electric guitar to sing the raucous "Hillbilly Highway," she tossed her hair around until young women in the audience started doing the same.

By the time Lambert finished, even Strawberry Queen Kristen Smith and her court in the front row got on their feet and bobbed the crowns on their heads.

She'd accomplished her mission.

Reporter Jeff Houck can be reached at (813) 259-7324 or jhouck @tampatrib.com.

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