Trick Pony, Tommy Shane Steiner, & Blake Shelton Please Sizzlin' Country Crowd

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Sizzlin' Concert official Website) - The Eighth Annual Sizzlin' Country concert returned to the Warner Brothers studio lot in Los Angeles Tuesday (May 21) night with a slate of country music's brightest rising stars performing to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

This event, which falls the night before the Academy of Country Music Awards, traditionally includes up-and-coming acts verging on stardom, yet this year's roster boasted a few tried-and-true performers as well.

The acts playing this night may well represent the future of country music. As in years past, each performer played quick two or three-song sets. The evening, hosted by Chely Wright and held on the Back to the Future lot, started with a barn-burning set from Kane, who is rightfully being heavily pursued by numerous record companies.

Trace Adkins, perhaps the most established artist of the night followed, playing two songs from his current hit album Chrome . After "I'm Tryin'," he asked the audience, some of the city's elite, who paid $5,000 a table to attend, to keep a sense of humor about themselves as he launched into "I'm Goin' Back," which jokes about Los Angeles' smog, traffic, and liberal nature.

"I'm available to do anything if it's for a good cause," Adkins told allstar backstage. "If I can use my meager talents to help make someone else's life better, then I'm there."

There were acoustic sets from Cyndi Thomson, Keith Urban, and Carolyn Dawn Johnson. Tammy Cochran , returning for the second year in a row, brought down the house with her top 10 hit "Angels in Waiting," written about her brothers who died of cystic fibrosis.

Tommy Shane Steiner's performance of "Maybe She's an Angel" was also a crowd favorite, as was Jamie O'Neal's "There Is No Arizona." Jeffrey Steele, technically an "unknown" artist, who has an impressive list of songwriting credits (Tim McGraw's "The Cowboy in Me," Diamond Rio's "Unbelievable," and LeAnn Rimes' "Big Deal" to name a few), delivered a great raved-up set, previewing an album coming this summer.

Blake Shelton 's set was clearly a cut above, with current single "Ol' Red," and his breakthrough song "Austin." Shelton projects a charming shyness and has a refreshing self-deprecating sense of humor, but none of that mattered as every time he smiled the women audibly gasped.

For the second year running the band that easily shone the brightest was Trick Pony . The group had the crowd eating from its hands and dancing in the street to hits "Pour Me," "On a Night Like This," and the current smash "Just What I Do." Not only does Trick Pony have hit songs, but it is an incredible force live, with an energy that harkens back to David Lee Roth-era Van Halen shows. The future looks very bright.

Silent auctions for donated items ranging from autographs from Kobe Bryant and Willie Nelson to weekend vacations in San Francisco and Montreal were held through the evening, and a baby grand Baldwin piano valued at $50,000 also went.