Review: In St. Paul, Lainey Wilson proves why she is country’s entertainer of the year

Well, it’s about time. It’s about time that country music found another woman to headline arenas.

Lainey Wilson — who has already won Entertainer of the Year trophies from the Academy of Country Music (twice) and the Country Music Association (once, and she’s nominated again this year) — made her first Twin Cities headline appearance Saturday night at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul. She brought the feminist flair of Shania Twain, the twangy folksiness of Reba McEntire and the freeing freshness of Carrie Underwood.

Yet, Wilson, 33, is a total original, with her cowgirl-hippie Western persona, small-town Southern charm and the most drawling voice since Dolly Parton. Her songs on Saturday were filled with sass, heart, empowerment, determination, cowboys and horses. It’s easy to see why Lainey Wilson and “entertainer of the year” belong in the same sentence.

Unlike Underwood or Miranda Lambert, Wilson didn’t use a TV talent show as a springboard to stardom. She moved in 2011 from Baskin, La., population 157, to Nashville in her camper trailer and worked on her craft. Nine years later, she broke through with “Things a Man Oughta Know,” her first No. 1 Nashville song.

She has since scored three more chart-toppers (including collabs with Cole Swindell and Jelly Roll), won a Grammy for best country album, joined the Grand Ole Opry and opened her own nightclub, Bell Bottoms Up, in Music City.

With five albums under her big belt buckle, Wilson focused on last year’s “Whirlwind” in St. Paul. She opened with the title track, with Texas tornado force, her voice roaring, her body spinning, her fringe flying. Before the high-octane two-hour set was over, she made it clear why a whirlwind not only describes her recent life but also her stage style.

Wilson is more vibrant in concert than hyperactive Kenny Chesney. In fact, at times she was bursting with such energy, whether manic or nervous, that she seemed to be rushing through her performance. Whirlwind, indeed.

Wilson has made country cool again with her uncompromising style and unpretentious authenticity. Stardom to her still feels fresh and cool. On Saturday, she seemed genuinely happy to crown fan Hannah as “Cowgirl of the Night,” bestowing a black cowgirl hat with feathers. And Hannah repeated after Wilson: “I am beautiful, I am fearless, I can do anything and I am Cowgirl of the Night.”

Wilson came to Minnesota to prove that cowgirls rock, as she did on the fiery “Hold My Halo,” the revved-up “Hang Tight Honey,” the galloping “Keep Up With Jones” and the sassy, Shania-evoking “Bell Bottoms Up.”

Wilson downshifted for ballads, including those that have made her the rare female voice on country radio these days — the wistful teenage romance “Watermelon Moonshine” and the empowering “Wildflowers and Wild Horses.”

The bell-bottoms lover asserted her world views in the flower child-ish “Peace, Love, and Cowboys.” In the night’s most poignant moment, she delivered a solo acoustic guitar treatment of the sobering “Whiskey Colored Crayon,” about a youngster drawing a family portrait that excluded his alcoholic dad, prompting him to clean up.

Wilson even did an acoustic ditty, the cute, Dolly-evoking “Counting Chickens” love song with her five bandmates making chicken noises on their various instruments. To close the night, she got deeply emotional on her tailgate numbers “4x4xU,” a Southern soul love ballad, and “Heart Like a Truck,” her declaration of toughness that needs some tenderness.

Wilson’s previous Twin Cities performances, when she opened for Luke Combs and Chris Stapleton, suggested her potential but nothing quite like this fully realized dream of the hell-bent woman from a tiny Louisiana town.

Befitting her vision, Wilson gussied up her St. Paul stage with a giant horseshoe framing a video screen. The videos depicted plenty of horses and desert scenes.

And, of course, there was Wilson’s outfit: black-and-mint bell bottoms and a matching buckled halter top, with rhinestone-studded fringe decorating the sides of her pants and stretching for five feet from her shoulders. The ‘fit was topped off with one of her Charlie 1 Horse cowgirl hats. True to her whirlwind theme, Wilson worked that fringe with the panache of Tina Turner.

In a quieter moment, Wilson outdid herself performing her recent single “Somewhere Over Laredo” — a clever twist on “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” about the memories of a (lone) star-crossed love — atop a rising pedestal with a superlong, gauzy cape flowing behind her.

It felt like a rock star moment for the female superstar Nashville desperately needs.