Songs in the key of GOP

The setup at Xcel Energy Center looks like a huge rock concert. Massive light rigs hover over the stage; curved columns of speakers hang from the ceiling. A huge HD screen is anchored behind the stage, security personnel in front. There's even a Teleprompter like the one Barbra Streisand had when she played here in 2006 -- except her letters were much, much bigger.

But music has been something of a line-item veto at the Republican convention -- a lean approach after the Democrats loaded up with Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow and other live performers.

Little-known Christian singer Rachael Lampa crooned two tunes in St. Paul to mostly taped accompaniment -- then walked off to the strains of "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC, the Australian hard-rockers known for their sexist double entendres. A recording of country has-been Aaron Tippin's "Where the Stars and Stripes and Eagle Fly" introduced Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann's moment in the Big Red spotlight.

Where is Kid Rock -- or Brooks & Dunn, or even Bruce Willis and his harmonica -- when the Republicans need him? The closest thing to a rock-star moment the first two days of the RNC was when Cindy McCain came out in a gold dress with the collar turned up like Elvis.

The only star of note has been Nashville stalwart John Rich, who headlined this arena in 2005 with his Big & Rich ticket mate, Big Kenny. Working solo, the Texas native -- who is the music business' biggest booster of Sen. John McCain -- did "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "Raising McCain," which sounds like a Chuck Berry boogie for old Johnny B. Goode.

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Music fans might think of Democratic music as protest songs -- Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, even Kanye West. But what is Republican music?

The GOP's most prominent music man might be former Arkansas Gov. and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. But the music he played with his band, Capitol Offense, at another party this week didn't seem particularly Republican, aside from the family-focused finale, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" and the opener "Only in America," a Brooks & Dunn song that serenaded Barack Obama after his acceptance speech last week.

Otherwise, it was a fairly standard bar-band set with a couple of surprises coming from a Baptist preacher ("Honky Tonk Women," "Devil With a Blue Dress") and two clever rewrites: Eric Clapton's "Cocaine" became "McCain" ("he's all right, he's all right, McCain!") while ZZ Top's lustful "Tush" was recast as a tribute to "Bush."

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McCain's key refrain has been "country first," but that doesn't mean country music. He's actually an ABBA fan. What he Arizona senator means is putting the U.S.A. first -- a message that resonated most clearly this week at a non-convention show.

Playing Monday at the State Fair, country superstar Toby Keith closed his set in front of 10,132 screaming fans with "American Soldier" and "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue," two of the most "country-first" songs of the post-9/11 era. Then Keith -- a lifelong Democrat who broke party ranks to vote twice for President Bush -- delivered his campaign slogan.

Now that's how to rock a convention.