Longtime country music great Tim McGraw is still a pro at curating a live set of songs for his fans.
Ask any fan who was at his Las Vegas show on Saturday night (December 6), and they’ll tell you one undeniable fact: Tim McGraw knows how to work a room.
And what’s more, McGraw can do it no matter the size of the room. He’s done it in sold-out arenas of 40,000. And on Saturday, he did it for 4,000, making his show at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace feel like he was part of the crowd, instead of merely a disconnected entertainer on stage.
He did it through his songs, packing 21 songs into his nearly two-hour set. And he did it through his connection with the fans, meandering his way through the crowd for the full length of several songs. And he did it through his candor from the stage, sharing stories about his life that created even more of a rapport with everyone in the room.
“We’ve been having a good time, and now I’m gonna blow it. Watch. If you’ve paid attention at all and know anything about me, the last two and a half years or so have been a little bit of a ride: four back surgeries and double knee replacements. In that downtime, I turned 58 years old — I know I don’t look a day over 63 — but at that time in your life when you’re injured, you spend a little time thinking, Maybe this is it. Maybe it’s all over for me. Maybe this is not what I’m supposed to be doing for the rest of my life.
“But I was productive. All those thoughts that I just told you about, I put down in a song. I think a lot of us gentlemen of a certain age can relate to it,” he said.
That song, “King Rodeo,” which McGraw penned with longtime collaborator Tom Douglas, is about being up there on that throne until you’re down there all alone. The lyrics do more than paint a picture of a rodeo man — Hey, King Rodeo, we’re all getting older, saddle’s hard, the nights grow colder/There’s still a fire that burns inside you/Just one more eight-second ride in you — they evoke an earnest look at the life that’s ahead of you after the spotlight has faded.
But the show wasn’t all soul-stirring ballads. McGraw’s been at this since his debut single, “What Room Was the Holiday In,” back in 1991. So he’s a pro when it comes to curating a set list that get fans on their feet, screaming along to every word.
With his eight-man band, the Dancehall Doctors, who have backed McGraw since before the early aughts, he brought out some of the most truly country music of the entire NFR. And while McGraw’s been known to cover songs often during his tours — Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer,” Keith Whitley’s “Don’t Close Your Eyes,” Eddie Rabbitt’s “Suspicions,” and Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars” — all 21 songs he played on Saturday night were his own.
After weaving his way through his long list of hits and deep cuts, it was time for his encore. And for the crowd on Saturday, right in the middle of the National Finals Rodeo, McGraw couldn’t have chosen a better way to cap the night. “Cowboy in Me,” “Humble and Kind,” “Indian Outlaw,” and his poignant ballad about what happens when life stops you on a dime, “Live Like You Were Dying.”
McGraw’s special limited engagement continues through December 13.
Full setlist from McGraw’s December 6 show:
- “Truck Yeah”
- “Southern Voice”
- “All I Want”
- “Everywhere”
- “How Bad Do You Want It”
- “Last Dollar”
- “One Bad Habit”
- “Southern Girl”
- “Where the Green Grass Grows”
- “Just to See You Smile”
- “Over and Over”
- “Shotgun Rider”
- “Something Like That”
- “Down on the Farm”
- “King Rodeo”
- “I Like It, I Love It”
- “Real Good Man”
- “Cowboy In Me”
- “Humble and Kind”
- “Indian Outlaw”
- “Live Like You Were Dying”
PHOTOGRAPHY (All images): Courtesy Denise Truscello.
