Alan Jackson [ tickets ] may be the strong, silent type, but he delivered a solid vocal punch during his Sunday performance (5/17) at Cricket Pavilion in Phoenix. He said little to the audience during his 90-minute performance, and instead focused on the music of his successful career.

Contrary to his modest nature on stage, his show kicked off in a self-aggrandizing fashion. A video celebrated and listed his successes, including 31 No. 1 hits and 100 major industry awards. Various country stars were seen announcing Jackson as the winner of several awards.

As his band, The Strayhorns, began "Gone Country," Jackson shelled out a simple, "How y'all doing tonight?" The crowd ate it up. Five video screens lit up the stage as he joined The Strayhorns in "Gone Country."

Jackson invited the audience to "drink, dance and whatever" as he peppered the crowd with hits from throughout his career, including some songs from his latest album "What I Do."

One of the few country artists who can balance his set with ballads and up-tempo numbers, Jackson wavered between the two, doing "Little Bitty" and "Too Much of a Good Thing" before leading into his version of the Hank Williams Jr. classic "Hey Good Looking."

The Strayhorns showed their rock side by offering a few licks of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" before "Don't Rock the Jukebox." Lights lining the back of the stage lit up like an old Wurlitzer jukebox in support of the song.

Fans were just as enthusiastic about the new material as they were about older songs, and applauded fervently as Jackson introduced "To Do What I Do."

"I didn't write it, but when I heard it, it brought back a lot of good memories," he said about the song, which tells the story of a musician working his way through the ranks.

On "It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere," Jackson's hit duet with Jimmy Buffett, Buffett's vocal parts were supplied via the song's music video, which was projected on the venue's video screen. Jackson stayed in sync with Buffett's taped parts, and fans responded to the song by holding their hands and drinks aloft.

The car-racing-themed video for "Who's Cheatin' Who" proved to be an audience favorite. Jackson threw guitar picks into the audience before the song stopped on a dime. Smoke then billowed from the stage as he took a stool for "The Talkin' Song Repair Blues," and his band played an extended jam session in honor of the genre.

Jackson's set was juxtaposed by Evans' opening performance. She shared long-winded stories with the audience, who offered a lukewarm response to the Missouri-bred, pitch-perfect singer. She spoke of her husband, Craig, her three children and the roots of many of the songs that she wrote.

During her hour-long set, Evans played a retrospective of her hits, ranging from "Born to Fly" to the new single from her forthcoming album, the Radney Foster-penned "Real Fine Place to Start."