Lonestar ‘voice’ McDonald wows Tifton crowd

TIFTON — The iconic voice of country music hits “Amazed,” “Front Porch Lookin’ In,” “I’m Already There,” and “Mr. Mom” filled the Historic Tift Theatre last Thursday night.

Richie McDonald, the lead singer of country music’s Lonestar, performed some of the group’s biggest hits solo for Tiftarea concertgoers and told the story behind some of the band’s most iconic songs.

The concert was opened by southwest Georgia country music artist, Ryn Crider, who performed several original songs as well as covers of Prince’s “When Dove’s Cry” and “Georgia on My Mind.”

“It’s good to be home,” Crider said at the beginning of her set.

“There must be something in the water in Georgia,” McDonald said at the beginning of his performance. “There’s a lot of good singers coming out of Georgia right now.”

McDonald seemed completely at ease on the Tift Theatre stage, often joking and interacting with the audience during the show.

He opened his performance with “Walking in Memphis,” a song composed and first recorded by Marc Cohn and later covered by Lonestar in 2003.

McDonald then performed one of Lonestar’s original hits, “I’m Already There.” He told the audience how he got he idea for the song, which went on to become one of the band’s No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.

McDonald had been away from his wife and children on tour for several weeks and called from a hotel room to talk to them on the phone. Right before the phone call ended, his 4-year-old son, asked him, “Daddy, when are you coming home?”

He told the audience how he “cried like a baby” after getting off the phone and then decided to write the song.

At the end of the song, the audience cheered loudly and several concertgoers gave McDonald a standing ovation.

McDonald told the audience about the experience of performing that particular song for troops overseas and seeing military men and women crying at the end of the song.

“That’s the cool thing about songwriting,” he said. “Music can really make a difference in people’s lives like when they’re away from their families like that.”

To lighten the mood, McDonald played a parody of his own song “I’m Already There,” called “We’re Almost There,” based on a flight on Southwest airlines during which a flight attendant sang the airline rules. During the parody, the crowd erupted in laughter and cheers.

McDonald went on to play two more of Lonestar’s big hits: “Front Porch Lookin’ In” and “Mr. Mom.”

He told a little bit of the background of each song before singing them.

“They just did the cutest little things that made you want to write songs about them,” McDonald said of his children.

He went on to tell the audience that he wrote “Front Porch Lookin’ In” for his daughters because he wrote “I’m Already There” about his son. One of his daughters had a pair of red cowboy boots she always wore on the wrong feet, inspiring the line “A little blue-eyed blonde with shoes on wrong ‘cause she likes to dress herself” in the song.

He also told the audience about a time he was at home when his children were little and his wife went to the store to get diapers, leaving him alone with all three kids. That stirred a realization.

“She was home taking care of what really mattered most,” McDonald said.

This experience inspired him to write “Mr. Mom,” and for the performance on Thursday, McDonald invited one of Lonestar’s most loyal fans, a woman named Melissa who has followed the band for nearly two decades, onstage to sing the song with him.

McDonald played more of Lonestar’s songs, as well as some of the songs he recorded as a solo artist in the brief period away from the band from 2007-2011. He also played some cover songs that had a big influence on him and a cover of Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy” after a request from an audience member.

He interspersed songs with stories about driving around in a ’67 Barracuda as a teenager in Lubbock, Texas, building bunk beds for his kids, remodeling the bathroom in his house, meeting one of his idols, Ronnie Milsap, his brother collapsing on the side of the road on his way home from work, and many more personal stories that allowed the audience to see him as more than just the famous lead singer of Lonestar.

Throughout the show, McDonald cracked jokes and told stories that made him relatable and personable to audience members, who he often interacted with, made possible by the intimate venue.

He ended the concert with “Amazed,” Lonestar’s longest-lasting No. 1 single. Just a few minutes into the song, one front row couple got up and danced, and in the meet-and-greet after the concert, one couple who took their picture with McDonald told him that the song had been their first dance together as husband and wife nearly 10 years ago.