For many more photos, click here. All photos by Mary Jane Farmer

Kellie Pickler played to a near-sold-out audience at Saturday night (Dec. 5, 2015) at Choctaw Casino’s Event Center in beautiful downtown Grant, Okla. This was the make-up date after she was obliged to postpone her appearance this past fall.

Pickler brought with her two guitar pickers, a keyboard player who also played guitar and accordion, a drummer, and a bass player. Each had his key role in the 75-minute concert. The guitar pickers acted as backup harmonies and the keyboard picker also sang a duet with Kellie, dedicated to Pickler’s grandmother as one of her favorite songs — the June Carter and Johnny Cash classic “Jackson.” She also sang a Loretta Lynn classic, and beyond that, the concert consisted of exclusively her own recordings.

Pickler’s engaging smile radiated through most of them, such as the song her husband wrote for her, “No Cure For Crazy.” It was a more somber song, no smile, “My Christmas Carolina,” dedicated to her late grandmother, who, she told the audience, raised her “and was the one I called ‘Mom.’ She smiled when an old friend, seated on the front row, handed her a shot of something drinkable. Later, then, she got that friend up to sing on one of her final songs. Well, actually, she sat down on stage front and he stood to join her.

Also, many of the fans in the crowd have, evidently by the shout-outs, been watching the new CMT television series, “I Love Kellie Pickler.“

You can keep your eye on the SceneInTown.com Live Music Calendar or go online to Choctaw Casinos, drag down the “Destinations” link, and then click on the left side under Entertainment. Either place, you’ll find that The Bellamy Brothers are playing at the Grant Event Center on Friday, Jan. 8, and that on Saturday, Feb. 20, the Texas/Okie duo of Maddie & Tae (of course, it’ll be full band), will be appearing in concert. There’s links there to buy those tickets.