Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, November 8, 1993                   TAG: 9311080074
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

REBA BRINGS DOWN THE HOUSE WITH REALLY BIG SHOW

The big voice. The big band. The big production. The big show-stoppers and the "Fancy" dress. As usual, it was all vintage Reba McEntire with the country music diva's concert Sunday night at the Roanoke Civic Center.

And as usual, Roanoke loved her.

It seems Reba just keeps getting bigger.

It was her biggest numbers, too, that left the most lasting impressions.

On "Fancy," her take on the Bobbie Gentry oldie, Reba sported her signature, red-and-black rhinestone "Fancy" dress. She sang along with the video clip of the song. She even started the song from inside a faux ramshackle shack - and brought down the house.

As usual, it was a show-stopper.

But Reba topped it this time.

In dueling evening gowns, her dramatic duet, "Does He Love You?" with backup singer Linda Davis, made "Fancy" look like a warm-up song. It was truly a show-stopper, and both Reba and Davis shone equally brightly.

Reba's big, eight-piece band, with three backup singers, was featured throughout the show, attended by 7,933. However, she really let them rip on the sassy romp, "Take It Back," her last song before coming out for an encore.

Other big production highlights included: Reba in waitress garb for her "Is There Life Out There?" encore; Reba singing to a video image of fellow country singer Vince Gill for their duet, "The Heart Won't Lie"; and Reba answering a telephone to begin "It's Your Call."

All the while, video cameras projected her every move onto two video screens suspended above the stage.

As usual, it was a strong show, marred by only one slip-up: a time-filling segment where the band played a prolonged medley of television show theme songs, while Reba underwent one of her many costume changes.

It seemed out of place in a concert that was otherwise all Reba.

Rowdy and hard-driving hat act John Michael Montgomery was second on the bill Sunday.

He was greeted with a whooping reception and proved a real crowd-pleaser. He delivered early with his sing-along hit, "Beer & Bones," and mixed things up from there with equally effective results.

With everything from ballads to more upbeat numbers to a rousing fiddle hoedown, even his scorching encore of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama," the crowd just went bonkers.

Maybe folks were in a loving mood.

Whether such a wild response was deserved could be debated. Montgomery, 28, was decent enough, but he was not really any more special than a dozen other young country hunks.

Maybe it was his dimples.

Whatever, it is hard to argue with so much whooping.

The opener was Mathews, Wright and King.

Again, nothing special here. The group, led by singer Raymond Mathews and guitarists Woody Wright and Tony King, started strong with a pair of catchy, riff-driven dance songs, but fizzled into mediocrity quickly afterward.

Particularly uninteresting were two new songs, "One of These Days" and "Dream Seeker," that the trio previewed. If they were any indication of the future, expect the group's time in the spotlight to be short-lived.