While most people who score a hit on the country charts, as well as having his own CMT Special, are out playing packed amphitheaters, Robison, who is expecting his first child in November, is staying close to home and bringing his music to same people who make up the subjects of his songs, the small town Texan.

Performing for an eager audience at the Pasadena Livestock Show and Rodeo, Robison added to his list of homegrown shows that catered to the people he loves most. Coming from small Texas town Bandera, Robison knows how tough it is to find something worthwhile on a weekend night, so be brought his show to town.

Rather than dealing with the sugar-coated pop garbage that is plaguing country radio today, Robison reaches back to a time when artists like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Billy Joe Shaver were playing roadhouses and bars as tough as the lives their songs spoke about, the lives most people live.

Coming on the stage, Robison looked more like a ranch-hand than a chart-topping musician, however, once his guitar was strapped on, no one could deny they were seeing a true artist at work.

With the opening notes of Poor Man’s Son, Robison fell right in stride with his backing band and never looked rushed or uncomfortable as he conversed with the audience and played snippets of covers and crowd favorites his two albums, 2001’s Step Right Up and 1999’s Life of the Party.

With his rendition of Anything Could Happen Tonight, which was co-wrote with his brother Bruce, Charlie painted a familiar picture of spending a small town Saturday night on the road dragging Main, listening to music and picking up girls. Robison even threw in a tribute to song that made it all worth while, the song “that many an adult entertainer made her career with…the kind with tassels,” AC/DC’s Shook Me All Night Long. If it was not for this show, there were surely a few kids who would be doing the same thing.

As the final notes of the final song, My Hometown, rang out, all those who made it out to the rodeo sang in unison with Robison. Rather than spending a drab night in the same routine, these people were treated to a night of music and storytelling that only someone like Charlie Robison can provide.