WINNIPEG - In the annals of honky-tonk history, crooner George Jones will forever be remembered as the greatest voice in country music.

Well, far be it from us to start second-guessing history. Without question, Jones's old-school twang was once among the most evocative in the biz, especially when put to use on one of the lush, string-laden ballads that were his stock in trade.

And while it's nice to see Jones has survived the decades of boozing and drug abuse he put his body through -- this is, after all, a man who once drove a riding lawnmower into town when his wife hid the keys to all his cars -- it's also an inescapable truth that the years haven't exactly been kind to that voice of his.

As was the case the last time Possum was in town (back in 2005, when he drew 6,000 fans to MTS Centre), Jones's voice sounded more than a little ragged last night -- certainly a far cry from the full-bodied instrument that once garnered him all that adulation and acclaim.

Jones struggled hard to hit the higher notes on tunes like Why Baby Why, Bartender Blues, The One I Loved Back Then and Yesterday's Wine -- not too surprising, given the man is pushing 80.

Also not surprising? The fact that Jones's concerts still play out like a weird hybrid between a casino show and a TV infomercial, where the star pauses to hawk his website, his bottled water and his line of sausage links almost as often as he trades corny bits of between-song banter.

To Jones's credit, the show wasn't without its highlights, among them a well-executed medley of older hits, the elegiac Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes (rendered as a touching tribute to the departed country legends of the past), the duet Take Me to your World (originally a hit for ex-wife Tammy Wynette), and of course his trademark tune He Stopped Loving Her Today -- which remains one of the saddest song ever committed to tape.

But while Jones may have done just fine with the standards, and the songs that required him to remain in his lower register, last night's show was still an unfortunate reminder that not everything gets better with age.

Earlier in the evening, opener Jason Byrd made the most of his warm-up slot, charming the crowd with a half-hour set of folksy new-country ditties about getting busy in the back of a pickup truck and finding love in the checkout aisle at Wal-Mart.