Fans of all ages were able to catch a glimpse of Keith Anderson and his rollicking style of country music Tuesday at the Freeborn County Fair as Anderson kicked off the beginning of five concerts that will take place at the grandstand.

Anderson, an Oklahoma native, played a 90-minute set that featured his hits, “I Still Miss You,” “Pickin’ Wildflowers,” “Everytime I Hear Your Name” and a few songs he penned that other artists covered, including “Beer Run,” which Garth Brooks and George Jones covered, and “Lost in This Moment,” which turned into a No. 1 single for Big & Rich.

His latest album “C’mon,” released last year, peaked at No. 3 on the U.S. country charts and moves from heartfelt ballad to rocking party tune.

Much of his set featured songs from the “C’mon” album, but Anderson mixed in a few of his numbers from his “Three Chord Country and American Rock & Roll” debut album.

Anderson has been a songwriter at heart and didn’t release his first album until 2005 despite having some of his work go on to be hits for other artists.

Anderson is quoted as saying on his Web site “I’ve been a song writing junkie my whole life. The first thing I’ve always done when I’ve gotten a new CD was take out the insert and find out who wrote what. I’ve dreamed my whole life of writing with my heroes and have been blessed to be able to write with many of them.”

Anderson has lived an eclectic life, going from trying professional baseball after a Kansas City Royals scout discovered him to becoming a bodybuilder, he seemingly has a unique set of experiences to draw upon for song writing.
Check out tomorrow’s Tribune to read a review of Luke Bryan’s performance that takes place tonight at the fairgrounds.
He has an engineering degree from Oklahoma State University and carried a 3.9 GPA. He later became a certified personal trainer and placed second in the Mr. Oklahoma bodybuilding contest.

Not surprisingly Anderson’s start in music didn’t come until he was in his teens when he learned to play guitar from his brother.

He describes his shows as high-energy and Tuesday’s show was a mix of lively numbers and ballads from Anderson and his two guitar players, drummer, bassist and keyboardist.

Fans cheered loudly when he asked who was from a small town and when he came out for his encore performance wearing an Albert Lea Thunder hockey jersey.

Anderson led off with “XXL” a bouncing, high-energy song. His next number was “Lost in This Moment.” The set went on to feature two acoustic songs before picking up the pace with “Break My Heart.”

Anderson concluded the show with “I Still Miss You” but returned for an encore of “Picking Wildflowers.” As he neared the end of the set he came down from the stage and walked up and down on top of the concrete blocks in front of the stage to greet fans and give high fives.

His fans are men and women alike and couples in the audience sang the words to his song together at times.

The hour and a half seemed to move quickly and Anderson wasted little time moving from song to song.

Anderson has made a name for himself as a songwriter and his big break came in 2001 when Garth Brooks and George Jones covered “Beer Run.”

Fans were on their feet plenty and many more cameras were out trying to snap a photo of the man who was named one of People magazine’s “50 Hottest Bachelors,” and Men’s Fitness magazine’s “Ultimate Country Star.”