Trace Adkins

With Billy Dean, Trick Pony, Keith Anderson, Bomshel, Gary Nichols, and Poverty Neck Hillbillies. Saturday, September 9, at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds.

By Michael Alan Goldberg on Wed, Sep 6, 2006 at 4:00 am

Trace Adkins

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You've probably heard Louisiana-born honky-tonk heartthrob Trace Adkins just as much on ESPN as on CMT this summer. That's thanks to his huge, ahem, single, "Swing," a simplistic tune about baseball as a metaphor for gettin' some, with its eminently, ahem, catchy chorus -- "Swing batter batter swing batter batter swing" -- perfect for the highlight reels. It's not as risqué a baseball-tinged tune as Meat Loaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," but if you've ever seen the Richie Sexson-sized singer work a crowd with his deep, twangy croon on such burners and ballads as "Hot Mama," "Ladies Love Country Boys," and "The Rest Is Mine," you know he gets the gals worked up enough to have them toss their digits and room keys.

Adkins barely has 10 digits of his own -- his pinky got chopped off in an oil-rig accident some years back. (It was "semi-successfully reattached," he says.) He was also shot through the heart and lungs by an ex-wife in '94. And those tough-guy credentials, plus rugged anthems like the NASCAR-'n-Skoal-themed "Rough & Ready," make him a big hit with the dudes, as well.