Music review

Country-music fans got to see a good, varied package of artists featuring a longtime superstar group, a star in the making, and an up-and-coming new artist Thursday night at the Augusta Civic Center.

The sold-out audience of 6,500 responded enthusiastically to sets by Alabama, Clint Black and Suzy Bogguss.

With a constant stream of concert-goers arriving during her set — most of them anxious to see either Black or Alabama — Bogguss didn’t have much of a chance to make a mark on the crowd.

Still, Bogguss was warm to the audience and showed a strong, versatile voice in her brief 20-minute set, drawing material from her two Capitol albums.

After a short stage change, out came Black, voted the best male vocalist by the Academy of Country Music this year.

Black mined his gold RCA debut album, “Killin’ Time,” singing the title hit along with “A Better Man,” “Nobody’s Home,” “Walking Away,” and “Nothing’s News.” He also displayed the range of his baritone voice, which includes a dandy falsetto, on covers of “Ain’t Misbehavin”‘ and “Steamroller Blues.”

The talents of Black’s six-member band were also very evident during his 13-song, 50-minute set. Black was willing to share the spotlight, and lead guitarist Hayden Nicholas and fiddle player Jeff Hoskins shone brightest.

Black’s good ol’ boy charm, rugged good looks and mischievous smile had a noted impact on the women in the audience. Carrying either cameras or flowers, they would run bent over toward the stage, like commandos stalking a target.

The civic center’s ushers struggled to get them to return to their seats, but it was a stalemate at best. By the time Alabama’s Randy Owen was the target of such affection, the ushers had managed at least to regulate the flow, causing less disruption.

Next, after a lengthy set change, on came Alabama in a cloud of smoke and a swirl of colored lights, accompanied by a blinding strobe of camera flashes.

The Alabama fans got exactly what they came for, as Thursday’s show was a near duplicate of the band’s show last October in Bangor, pretty much down to the set and lighting. The only difference was “Pass It on Down” and “Jukebox” from their latest album.

The Academy of Country Music’s Group of the Decade was all business, burning through 17 hits in less than an hour, including “If You’re Going to Play in Texas,” “The Closer You Get,” “Song of the South,” “Take Me Down” and “Mountain Music.”

As always, Owen was the charismatic frontman, with Jeff Cook providing hot licks on fiddle and guitar and Teddy Hendry on bass and Mark Herndon on drums propelling the music along.

Alabama came back on for a 20-minute encore, including a medley of southern rock classics. The band also did the monotonous but time-honored tradition of “Who can sing the loudest?” to Steam’s “Kiss Them Goodbye.”

Very little was new, but the avid fans still went home happy.