This is the best concert that I have ever been to. Well, let me think about it to make sure. Roxette, Gloria Estefan, Faith Hill, Britney Spears, Martina McBride. Of that list, Roxette is really close, but I think I liked Martina McBride more. Gloria Estefan and Britney Spears have very produced concerts. I saw Gloria Estefan's concert on television and it was exactly the same as the live version, skipping the boring parts. I'm sure Britney Spears is the same, what with all the dance numbers and set changes. Faith Hill, although she put on a nice concert, suffered from a rather anemic sound system. She didn't sound good at the place I saw her concert in.

Martina McBride put on a nice concert. Pretty much all she did was sing. No dancing, although she tended to tromp around the stage to give attention to the fans at the sides. Only one costume change, and that was only to change her top from a black starry t-shirt to a pink starry t-shirt. The sound was good and loud, with her voice sounding a bit off in pitch but still strong in power.

The concert was at Great America's Redwood Amphitheatre. It's kind of small, holding maybe 5000 people and it was only half full for the concert. The ticket also gets you into the park, so you can go early and go on the rides and such, something to keep in mind if you go to a Great America concert. Once you go to the amphitheatre you can't go back into the park.

Opening act was Keith Urban. His nine-song set lasted almost an hour as he and his band played great music. Lots of instrumental bits and Keith is an excellent guitar player. He also has a good sense of humor, introducing himself after the first three songs by saying "for those of you people just joining us, this is my band 'The Lords of the Underworld' and I'm TimMEE!"

Keith is quite friendly, usually saying a few things to the audience in between songs. He said hi to a Lynne and Shirley who were sitting in the front row and whom he had met when he was signing autographs earlier. He sang "Its a Love Thing" and "Your Everything", both of which I've heard on the radio. Certainly a very good opening act.

When Martina got on stage a half hour later, the crowd went wild. She immediately started with a song that I can't remember right now. I do remember that she ended her regular set with my favorite Martina song, "Independence Day". Martina has five albums out, if you don't count her Christmas album, so she has a lot of songs to choose from. Of the 18 songs she sang, four or five were from other sources (she sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", which she said was her favorite song when she was a kid). The rest were all very recognizable songs people had heard on the radio.

One of the things about Martina's songs (she doesn't write songs, so I'm talking about the songs she picks for her albums) are that many of them sound best when you sing them at the top of your voice. And she can really belt it out. She likes to hold a note forever, and most songs had parts where she could do that. There are also ballads that she delivers with heartfelt emotion.

Her songs included "Anything's Better than Feelin' the Blues" (which is not on the radio yet), "I Love You" (her most successful song so far), "Love's the Only House", and "There You Are" from her last album. Plus "Happy Girl", "A Broken Wing", "Valentine", "Wild Angels", "Safe in the Arms of Love" and "My Baby Loves Me" from her other albums. Plus songs that I've forgotten.

The crowd was wild, always giving her a standing ovation after every song, and sometimes during the song for particularly good parts. She is quite animated up on stage, moving about and dancing a bit, all impromptu. The amphitheatre has hard benches so after three hours I was quite uncomfortable. The concert extended past the park's closing time so at the end we're directed outside the park. Took a while to get out with all the cars and all. But it was a good concert and I highly recommend going to one of Martina's concerts if you like her music.