A hillbilly honky-tonk: Blake Shelton shakes up Colosseum

As Blake Shelton announced the George Strait classic, “All My Ex’s Live In Texas” at the Colosseum on Wednesday night, he grabbed a hand towel and ran it across his hair. The result was a damp, tousled look you’d see from a singer-songwriter in his 1 a.m. set at a hillbilly bar. Any requests?

The on-stage mop-down fit the mood. Shelton is not Las Vegas glitz. He boasts about it, saying his one allowance for stage flash are the six-inch strips of silver glitter on his western-cut, black corduroy pearl-snap shirt. “For me, this is a lot.”

I laughed, remembering the many carefully choreographed costume changes from Cher and Celine in that same room.

The country-western superstar and “The Voice” alum returns this Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights, closing his half-dozen performances at the Strip’s fanciest country-western club.

Shelton told the crowd he’d wanted to play a Vegas residency for years, and saw his wife, Gwen Stefani, perform 13 shows across the Strip at Planet Hollywood. He checked into his Ole Red club on Facetime on Jan. 16, on the venue’s first anniversary.

On video furnished by People’s Mark Gray, Shelton was sheepish when calling his run a “residency” around his spouse.

“Gwen actually says I’m not allowed to call that a residency because it’s only six shows,” he told the crowd. “I don’t want to wear out my welcome.” Stefani headlined 57 “Just a Girl” shows from 2018-21 at then-Bakkt Theatre, today’s PH Live.

Shelton is the latest to transform the regal Colosseum, which recently hosted Adele’s glorious 100-show run, into a rowdy honky-tonk. Reba, Brooks & Dunn, Shania Twain and (currently) Garth Brooks have made hay with country-flavored shows at the Colosseum.

Shelton followed suit in his BSxLE jeans and Tony Lama boots (this saves you from stalking his fashion brands). The duds were very on-point. He might as well had installed hitching posts in the VIP area, and a mechanical bull in the sound booth.

“I’ve been coming to Las Vegas for a long, long time, so I know what my job is here tonight. I know what we’re all doing here,” Shelton said early in the show. “We’re here to make memories that we’re going to pretend like we don’t remember, and my job tonight is to provide a soundtrack for your trip to Las Vegas.”

He later said, “Maybe you’ve had a nice dinner on the Strip, and then you come in here and party like a bunch of hillbillies.”(Shelton did that many years ago, after a show at Golden Nugget Showroom, jumping onstage with Frankie Moreno at Rush Lounge at Golden Nugget).

Shelton alternately delved deep and stayed in the moment. His opener was the forceful duet with Post Malone, “Pour Me a Drink.” Early career cuts “Austin,” “Some Beach” and “Home” were delivered alongside last year’s release “Texas.”

Along with his nod to Strait, Shelton evoked the late George Jones with “Ol’ Red,” conveniently the name of Shelton’s country-music fortress kitty-corner from Caesars Palace in front of the Horseshoe.

With many fans (at least, a couple of full-throated gals behind me) crying out, “We want Gwen! We want Gwen!” They got Gwen, on black-and-white video, for a duet of “Happy Anywhere.”

Shelton also found a new nickname on the T-shirt of a fan near the stage. “Still not a Swiftie. I’m a Sheltie,” he read. “That’s gonna be a YouTube moment. That’s gonna be on social media. Taylor Swift’s gonna have me killed.”

It’s the kind of thing you’d shout to a bar crowd. This crew ate it up, drank it up, and toweled off for more.

Ole Red revival

Shelton plugged Ole Red during the performance. This is where the post-party goes down after every show. Shelton had not appeared there after the first two nights, but a drop-in is always possible when he’s in town.

On Wednesday, Michael Dean and the Ryan Whyte Maloney band returned to the stage for the first time after Maloney’s death on Jan. 28. Family, friends and supporters of Maloney packed the venue. Maloney’s band mates are back in residency Fridays and Saturdays.

Cool Hang Alert

Thematically organized in the country genre, we plug Presley & Taylor at Stoney’s Rockin’ Country at Town Square at 7 p.m. (doors) and 10 p.m. (showtime!) Friday. The sister duo from Connecticut have three solid singles, “22 Red Flags,” “Don’t Even Know Your Mama,” and “Everybody Sees It,” with 5 million streams across all platforms.

This is an 18-over experience; $17.50 in advance and $35 at the door for those 21-over, and $30 advance, $35 at the door for the 18-21 set (club doesn’t profit from booze sales to that community, is the reason). Go to stoneysrockincountry.com for intel.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.