Big-draw McGraw

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By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

It was an upbeat night for upbeat performer Tim McGraw to visit the sold-out Covelli Center.

With warm weather and sunny skies, a happy crowd filled the 7,000-seat hall Friday to see and hear the man Jen Hoffman of West Middlesex, Pa., called “the best country music artist of all time.”

“This will be 12 times I’ve seen him,” Hoffman said as she and her large party emerged from a limousine to head into the arena.

“He appeals to the masses. He draws everyone in,” she said.

The concert began with McGraw entering the stage by walking through the crowd, which lit up the audience to an early fever pitch that continued for hours.

Lori Noble of Boardman has been a country music fan since she was small and a Tim McGraw fan for years.

“He puts on a very good show. We’re excited we can drive 10 minutes to see him instead of an hour,” she said while waiting for a table at the Lemon Grove Café downtown.

She and Stephen Murphy of Niles, who both have spouses who don’t like country music, have attended Tim McGraw concerts together a couple times a year for more than five years, but all of their previous McGraw concerts have been in Pittsburgh or Cleveland.

Noble’s daughter Emily likes one of McGraw’s more recent songs, “Felt Good on My Lips,” and joins many women who admire McGraw’s looks.

“I love him. Whoa, he’s pretty fine, and his music is good,” Emily said.

Murphy is one of the many fans who likes that McGraw songs cross over to rock and other influences.

“It’s not real country. It’s upbeat. It’s really catchy,” Murphy said.

McGraw’s ability to crank out catchy tunes has made him the most popular singer in country music, though it’s taken 20 years and has included a celebrity marriage to superstar Faith Hill, and acting, most notably a role as Sandra Bullock’s husband in the movie “The Blind Side.”

One of his first big hits was the 1994 song “Don’t Take the Girl,” which crossed over to the pop charts. It is an emotionally stirring tale of boy and girl/boy and girlfriend, man and wife at three different stages of their lives.

In all three cases, the boy begs someone to “not take the girl” — asking his father not to take the girl fishing, a robber not to take the girl and hurt her and God not to take her during childbirth.

Born in Louisiana in 1967, McGraw didn’t know until he was 11 that his father was Major League baseball pitcher Tug McGraw, who died in 2004 and may have been the inspiration of one of Tim McGraw’s most-popular songs, “Live Like You Were Dying.”

Katie White of Boardman, whose boyfriend Tony Lucente, brought her to the concert as a birthday gift, has been a Tim McGraw fan for 10 years.

“I’m dragging him into the country experience with me,” she said of Lucente. “It’s uplifting. It’s fun,” she said of McGraw’s music.

John Popa of Struthers, dressed in a cowboy hat and attending the concert with his wife, Lynn, says he’s been a McGraw fan for more than 15 years. McGraw’s “My Best Friend” was the couple’s wedding song in 2006.

“Honest to God, we grew up with him,” Lynn said, adding that the lyrics in McGraw’s songs appeal to her because “they all tell stories of how people grow up.”

McGraw, who performed at the Canfield Fair about 10 years ago, seems to be able to relate to the people this area “because we’ve had our ups and downs,” she said.

Amanda McNinch of Poland, who attended the concert with three female relatives and started the evening at a downtown restaurant, said the concert was a great reason to enjoy downtown Youngstown.

“We’re really excited to have [the concert] at the Covelli,” she said. “It’s a great venue, and we enjoy coming downtown and supporting city-based businesses.”