Black shows perfect timing in Sunset Station concert

Leah Robinson

Monday, June 21, 2004 | 9:27 a.m.

Who: Clint Black.

When: Saturday.

Where: Sunset Station Amphitheatre.

Rating (out of five stars): ****

The country crooner served up all his time-related cuts Saturday at Sunset Station's Amphitheatre, including the polar opposite country hits, "Killing Time" and "No Time to Kill."

And as if that weren't enough, Black's new single and album of the same name are about, you guessed it, time. "Spend My Time" is Black's first studio recording in five years.

"We thought we needed another song about time, or with time in the title," Black said with a smile.

Wearing a black cowboy hat and sport coat, white shirt and faded blue jeans, Black first appeared onstage sans band, accompanied only by his familiar squinty-eyed grin and guitar.

"I'm gonna go ahead and start the show. I told the band to be here by 8. They must be inside playing keno."

With that, he opened with a nice acoustic version of "Live And Learn." Right on cue, the band joined Black for the next set of upbeat feel-good country tunes, "Good Run of Bad Luck," and "One More Payment." There was no opening act.

Black's vocals were strong all night. He easily transitioned from bluesy numbers such as "Boogie Man," to slower, vocal-driven ballads such as "Spend My Time."

Other highlights included the stormy "Like the Rain," the thoughtful, "We Tell Ourselves," and the steadfastly optimistic "Better Man."

Musically, Black is known in Nashville as one of the great talents on the guitar and harmonica, and those talents were on display. He did surprise the audience, though, and deftly take up the drums during an encore cover of Steely Dan's "Josie." Who knew he could pound the skins?

Black's elegant, soul-searching style fit perfectly with the small 2,500-seat venue. There were no oversized blown-up bottles of liquor and no beer sponsor signs to be found. Clearly, Black's lyrical voice and good-humored banter are his show's focus -- neither of which would come through in larger venues.

Still, Black did not take full advantage of his gifts. Other than the opening song, no other cuts were performed acoustically. That was a bit of a disappointment, given Black's splendid voice.

He also missed the mark with the closing song, "Bad Goodbye," originally recorded with Wynonna Judd. The mournful lyrics deserved a slow pace and precious few instruments, but Black sang it up tempo with the full band.

He was at his best, however, when he played up the cowboy balladeer personae, romancing the audience like a lover. Before he sang "Love Is Something We Do," he talked about his marriage to Lisa Hartman Black.

"I hope everyone is lucky enough to find what we have together," he said. "I read somewhere that love is a verb, not a noun. So, since I was a songwriter looking for a song, I stole it. I mean, I borrowed it."

Black's tender and poignant ode to committed love had hands squeezing and eyes gazing while he sang, "There's no request too big or small/We give ourselves, we give our all/Love isn't someplace that we fall/It's something that we do."

So, was an evening spent with Clint Black worth the time? Well worth it, indeed.