It wasn't all Reba McEntire at this six-hour indoor country music festival. Lesser known names such as Brad Presley, The Derailers and Joe Dee Messina performed for the early comers, while Ricky Skaggs snagged the late stragglers. Out in the foyer, in between the main acts, the Roadhouse Cowboy Line Dancing Troupe was rehearsing its steps amidst a crowd of beer sippers and incongruous hat-wearing onlookers. Once Reba took to the stage, however, it was hats off and all hands on deck.

While the likes of Shania Twain may be snapping at Reba's high heels with her mixture of amped-up fiddles and Riverdancing in the rain, Reba looks set to carry on her Oklahoma tradition of syrupy, effective ballads and bog-standard C&W numbers. With a series of costume changes, a consummately professional nine-piece band and a risque troupe of theatrically-based dancers, Reba isn't taking any chances, however.

While the big (and ultimately hollow) numbers involve all manner of whistles 'n' bells stage lighting and dance movements, it's her ballads that mark Reba out as Queen of the Silver Dollar: The Fear Of Being Alone, Forever Love, Why Haven't I Heard From You, Greatest Man I Never Knew and a new song, I'll Be, are all presented with equal parts saccharine, sincerity and sentiment.