Concert review: Luke Combs offers electrifying closer on third night of Country Thunder

It might be temping to suggest that Luke Combs' recent triumph with his highly respectful cover of Tracy Chapman's Fast Car has been the fuel for his superstardom. It's true, Combs' version of Chapman's catchy but grim classic became one of the greatest, and strangest, success stories in music last year. On Sunday, the North Carolinian played the final main-stage set to end the three-day Country Thunder festival at the former Fort Calgary (now The Confluence) to a sold-out audience. There was more than one homemade sign in the audience that demanded he play Fast Car and it was certainly the best song he played Sunday night. When Combs explained how the song's recognizable opening guitar riff was the first one he taught himself at the age of 21 and recalled listening to the song on cassette as a four-year-old sitting in his father's pickup truck, the crowd went wild. But Combs — who was presumably enlisted to be this year's Sunday night headliner by Country Thunder programmers prior to Fast Car climbing the charts — is hardly a one-trick pony. There was a definite go-for-broke vibe for both the performer and audience on Sunday, with the singer-songwriter breaking a sweat less than halfway through opening number The Kind of Love We Make while the audience shouted virtually every word on every song. It was a reminder that fans can be very loyal in that strange parallel universe of mainstream country music, something the festival proves each year. Read More