Clay Walker Plays For The 4th

With 11 number one hits, and over 10 million records sold, ladies and gentlemen give a big Las Cruces welcome to Curb recording artist, Clay Walker! .... and the crowd goes wild.

... and the crowd never stopped going wild for Clay! It was a free concert to celebrate the 4th of July, and it was likely one of the largest gatherings Las Cruces has seen for quite some time. Better than 10,000 people were expected for the concert; they each may have brought just a few extra friends. There was nary any grass to be seen on the Galla T-Ball fields as country fans gathered to see the man with the current hit, "She Won't Be Lonely Long."

Perfect outdoor-concert weather likely contributed to the capacious crowd. It had been cloudless all day, dropping the humidity and leaving the starry sky ripe for fireworks. The evening hours dropped the temperature, and the light breeze was enough to keep the crowd from stifling as well as keep the buggy critters away.

Local band, Ekiz, opened the show for Clay Walker with a variety of country and classic covers.

Clay took the stage with a sampling of his string of hits as well as a few added treats for the Las Cruces crowd. In a pre-aired radio interview, Clay spoke of his show consisting of primarily hits and few covers, so it was a delight to hear songs such as "Before The Next Teardrop Falls," "All American," future recordings, and others that he said he doesn't perform often. Perhaps it was the weather that got him in the mood. Or the festival-size crowd. Whichever, the full show had enough energy to power the spaceport, with a few obligatory slow-down songs, if you call his from-the-diaphragm power ballads a rest period. Clay turned up the heat through part of the show, much to the ladies' delight, with flirtatious gyrations that aren't often seen from other starched-jeans-and-cowboy-hat singers. Perhaps the magazines that compile the "hot country stars" lists should look a little closer at Walker.

But back to the show. In a tech-forward move, Clay invited the crowd to send a text message to try to win free merchandise. The request seemed successful; in fact, so many people were texting at one time, it took a couple of tries to get those texts through. All texters received thank you messages that at least included a merch coupon, if not the winning message. But it was a great strategy to get more fans to join the growing popularity of artist text mobs. Meanwhile, at least one young lady in the crowd was a veteran of the Walker experience, as she was prepared to offer Clay a lei at just the right time for "Then What." But like the best go-with-the-flow shows, Clay changed the order and asked her to hold off for one more song. He got one more ballad into the show, introduced the band, and then took that lei, broke out the beach balls, threw more leis in the crowd and broke into his tropical-themed hit. He later tried to leave the stage, but it was a futile effort as the crowd nearly immediately began chanting, "We Want More;" or was it "We Want Clay," or maybe it was "U.S.A."? It was actually an odd combination of all three, and as requested, Clay and the band returned for an encore of "Honkytonk Woman," and another quick stab at his current hit, "She Won't Be Lonely Long."

So in one night the crowd got Texas two-step hits, Tex-Mex, island flavor, power ballads, album cuts, new music, and radio hits all rolled into one Clay Walker. It was an unforgettable night punctuated by a $31,000, 25-minute fireworks show in the clear southern sky. Thank you, Clay. Happy 4th of July, Las Cruces.