Queers like country, too

Liking country music, as a gay, is about as wrong as wearing socks with sandals. Or so we've been taught, constantly told we can only like divas whose voices can crack glass or beats that are repetitive as an argyle sweater. But if Pink said, "ya'll" – and had long blond locks and a fully-loaded rifle – she might just be Miranda Lambert, a beer-guzzling babe who's pretty badass. Quite frankly, Lambert, who performed Saturday at the Colosseum at Caesars Windsor, is my idol – at least when it comes to releasing my inner bitch. Cheat on her? She'll set your house ablaze. Rough her up? She'll one-up you – by putting a bullet in you.
That was relayed quite well Saturday night as she tore through "Kerosene" and "Gunpowder & Lead" with the fiery conviction of someone who might just have a gun in her back pocket. She didn't, in fact. And how could she? Her hip-suffocating jeans left no room for any firearms – let alone a case of Tic Tacs. She was quite aware of the denim, flaunting what was tightly fit into them with a sassy, sexy strut that might be typical of, say, Britney Spears. It was cute and all, especially when she turned her ass to the audience and pointed to it while singing a song that referenced "tight jeans." But the hour-and-a-half show was more about the genuine, unrivaled talent of the 25-year-old Texan.
With two albums to her still-rising name, the "Nashville Star" finalist's artistry – she's a deft guitarist, writer and remarkable singer gifted with girly-twanged pipes – is deeper than country contemporaries like Taylor Swift and bad-girl burnouts like Gretchen Wilson. And what makes Lambert particularly striking are the dual roles she plays. How she can convincingly shift from a don't-eff-with-me country-rocker like "Gunpowder & Lead" (Rihanna, take note) to the devastatingly honest "More Like Her" – where Lambert broke from her band, strummed guitar on a stool and poured out her vulnerability (frankly, I wanted to hug her – but then I remembered she's with country hottie Blake Shelton).
Songs from her latest disc, the 2007 release "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" (one of the best albums of that year), were played pretty equally with those off her debut, "Kerosene." And, for all the casino-comped Old Country Buffet'ers, she tossed in some respectable covers, like Merle Haggard's "The Way I Am." Best of all, though, was "Angel from Montgomery" – an achingly beautiful take on the John Prine classic. If ear-swallowing music this good is a gay sin, then don't bother saving me.