"Edwin McCain" has always seemed to enjoy playing in these parts. As a result, he's developed quite a fan following here. There are those here that would miss Christmas with their families without a thought, but would go see "Edwin McCain" every time he came to town. About 1,000 such fans jammed into The North End (a club here in Jackson, MS) to see "Edwin McCain" the other night.

About 1,000 fans left at end of show quite happy that they had attended (minus the two or three that dressed up in their best clothes and still didn't get beer bought for them.) Judging from his songs that have recieved airplay, "Solitude," "I'll Be" and "I Could Not Ask For More," one would expect a mostly slow, ballady show, but this wasn't the case at all.

The band played a healthy mix of energetic rockers and "get your lighter out" ballads, and varied them enough to where the crowd never settled down and stopped dancing. The set opened with two higher energy numbers, "Anything Good About Me" and "Beautiful Life," both of which allowed Larry Chaney to cut loose a bit on guitar. This also set the tone for the evening, with the audience basically fully charged from the outset. The band seemed to really enjoy playing in the smaller venue and being able to interact with the audience so closely, and the audience fed off of this.

Edwin and his bandmates were clearly enjoying themselves and kept smiles on their faces the entire concert. It's obvious when touring becomes just a job to musicians and this hasn't happened yet with this band. The show clocked in at a little under two hours, not counting opening acts, and for the most part the band played songs from the new album. In fact they hit every song on the new album except one, unless I'm mistaken. The audience responsed well to all the new songs, and even recognized all the words to the obligatory singalong, which in this case was the song "Go Be Young."

Between songs, Edwin laughed and joked with the audience, and told stories of his time on the road. In one amusing story, he spoke of a show he and his band did a few years back in Jackson, in the now-mercifully defunct club Midnight Sun, where not a single paying customer showed up. Not only did this bring a laugh from the crowd, but the fact that he and they had this common experience (everyone knew of the Midnight Sun) gave a feeling of kinship between the audience and the performers.

In one of the highlights of the set, during the song "Sign On The Door," "Edwin McCain" invited Beth Hart (one of the opening acts) onstage to do the song with him as a duet. Although I didn't see where it added anything having the song done as a duet, it did provide something more than a color-by-number rendition of the album version. Toward the last of the set, he played some older numbers, including a version of "I'll Be" in which he was almost drowned out by the audience singing along, and a rather enjoyable version of "Solitude."

He ended the show by voicing a tribute to his grandmother, and then having the band launch into "See Off This Mountain," which he had penned for her. It was a moving way to end the show, and provided a great cap on a nice evening of rock and roll music. Playing 300-plus tour dates a year I guess has made the band veteran performers and tight-sounding live musicians. They put on a hell of a show for fans of their music and I look forward to their next appearance here.