Country superstar Reba McEntire, a singing registered trademark, rocks at Rexall Place on Friday night. (Codie McLachlan, QMI Agency)

EDMONTON - Reba has shed her last name so gradually it's hard to tell exactly when it happened.

It's not like she wasn't known as a mononame already, joining the country elite along with Garth, Alan and Dolly, but her concert at Rexall Place on Friday night was billed by the promoter as just "Reba."

In the quest for branding everything that can be sold, "Reba McEntire" probably just became too long to say. And like Kentucky Fried Chicken turned into KFC so gradually we barely noticed, certain difficult issues can be avoided -- not from Kentucky, not technically fried, does not contain chicken. It's all about the brand now. Which may or may not be a metaphor for modern country music. In the end, it's clear: Reba is much more than a mere person. She is a singing, registered trademark.

So the only thing to find fault in her live concert was its stunning predictability. It was easy to tell that every note, every solo, every snatch of stage patter, every goggle-eyed grin was planned and executed like clockwork.

Before demonstrating that it's her great voice that is the true power behind the registered trademark -- and all that followed, TV, Broadway, whatever -- she said it was good to be "back in Canada." She promised a "journey" containing both new songs and old songs and that the most important thing was for us, her fans, to "have fun." Bold words, to be sure!

We knew we were going to get rip-roaring country rockers like Nothing Left To Lose or Pink Guitar, and would've been disappointed not to hear Reba's signature version of The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia. Good tune, it still holds up.

We expected a medley of oldie Reba ballads, along with the uptempo picker's parade to show off her predictably excellent musicians in a brisk western swing -- or in a sassy, brassy blast like I'll Have What She's Having, where she shows her best side away from most of the commercial, middle-of-the-road material she does.

And in contrast to the sassy-brassy side, this singer is a master of wearing her heart and other internal organs on her sleeve. She appeared to get a bit misty during her own heartbreak songs. The first such instance Friday came early in Falling Out of Love.

Later it was misty times 10 in an ode to her daddy, who was a steer-roping champion who had trouble showing affection to his children. It seems to be a common thing with country singer's daddies, second most popular sad song theme next to no-good cheatin' husbands. Cue The Greatest Man I Never Knew. If there was a dry eye in the house, I didn't see it.

The same goes for a killer rendition of Does He Love You, the duet with Linda Davis that went big in 1993. Even the unexpected was expected. Much later in a 90- minute show came a version of Beyonce's song If I Were a Boy. Did you see that coming? Of course you did.

With Reba being appropriately sassy and brassy and occasionally sad, the music pumping off stage was pure country FM: Bright, slick and sounding like high-production pop from the '80s, not a lick of spontaneity in the entire affair. At least the show wasn't too obvious: No pyro, no lavish costume changes, no pink guitar during Pink Guitar, no typical trappings of the pop diva. There was but one costume change to end and just one grand entrance on a rising platform. Hey, she's entitled. The name says it all.

Opening act Victoria Banks has only recently risen from the ranks of the Nashville staff songwriter to become a country star in her own right -- a Canadian country star, but it's a start. So bonus points straight away for writing her own stuff.

Unfortunately, a good chunk of that stuff is riddled with almost unbearable melodrama and tired cliches. In the opener, the "wheel keeps turning" is used as an illustration of the cycle of life, which also points out the motions of heavenly bodies (sun comes up, moon goes down) and contains the line "live and learn." Later in the set reveals gems like "shelter from your storms" and "throwing caution to the wind."

Banks found some moments of originality. Don't Leave the Leavin' up to Me had some good advice for the weak-willed lover. And the highlight of this solo set was a bluesy blast she really ought to do more of, this one about having casual sex with other men as a reaction to having been cheated on. It happens.

Banks told the crowd she's been through a nasty divorce -- almost a prerequisite for a professional country music songwriter -- and added that "most of you" can probably relate. Hey, speak for yourself, sister. Most of us don't live a country song. That's your job.