Tim McGraw performs at Rexall Place last night for Big Valley Jamboree ticket-holders. (Jordan Verlage, Sun Media)

EDMONTON - Country music is a tight-knit, big-hearted, fun-loving community, but it really shows its power when there's a tragedy in its midst.

You couldn't have witnessed a bigger emotional bender than the one at Rexall Place last night -- from laughter to tears, from a moving moment of silence to complete bedlam. It was more than a "makeup" concert for the one Tim McGraw didn't play at the Big Valley Jamboree, which was cancelled after a devastating storm on Aug. 1 that collapsed the stage, claiming the life of 35-year-old Lloydminster mom Donna Moore.

This event was a celebration of her life. It was a celebration of the music she loved. It was an affirmation of the Big Valley Jamboree itself, whose organizers have vowed to continue.

With both Rexall Place and Ticketmaster waiving their usual fees for last night's gig, more than $20,000 was raised for the Donna Moore Memorial Trust Fund to provide for her two sons, with fund-raising efforts expected to continue for Big Valley Jamborees to come.

Given what might've been a solemn occasion, it was eerie how much last night's event felt like the Big Valley Jamboree at full honky-tonkin' throttle -- just, you know, warmer and drier -- complete with the trademark Danny Hooper banter and the hokey humour from comedy duo Williams and Ree that preceded the main event.

Tim McGraw, of course, has been in the news lately for personally ejecting a rowdy fan from one of his concerts, and for suggesting that Kanye West needs an "ass-whoopin'. " More than 7,000 fans last night were treated to a similarly no-nonsense set from the black-hatted superstar.

It was all business up there on the giant "in the round" stage. McGraw and his Dancehall Doctors barged through a set of the sunny, slick, radio-friendly country tunes McGraw is loved for -- open with I Like It, I Love It, into Indian Outlaw, slowed it down for Where the Green Grass Grows and we have a typical McGraw party. There wasn't a lot of messing around, not a lot of talk, frankly not a lot of spontaneity, either, just hit after hit after hit, each note, each fiddle solo, each "yeehaw," every "here we go!" in their proper place.

Not to say he phoned it in or anything, but we've heard this before, his new stuff fitting seamlessly into his well-worn catalogue with show pacing like clockwork -- and we'll hear it again at some future Big Valley Jamboree, no doubt.

The evening started with a quartet of singer-songwriters -- Clayton Bellamy, Tracy Millar, Shane Chisholm and Samantha King -- who played to a far bigger audience than they would have in the singer-songwriter tent at the BVJ.

They are dependable area talents, to be sure, perhaps destined to write Tim McGraw's next hit, or even be the next Tim McGraw (or Faith Hill, depending).

Gord Bamford came next, the burly Lacombe native who's a little rough around the edges, and a bit towards the middle, too, but hey, that's OK.

He comes off like the real cowboy deal, easier to imagine wrestling bulls than, say, sitting down at a piano.

His songs were as tough as Ford trucks -- or as tender, depending -- his voice a manly bray that filled the arena, his band excellent enough to dazzle through any of the bandleader's vocal shortcomings.

Hats off to the awesome steel player Jeff Bradshaw.

It wouldn't be a BJV kind of evening without Williams and Ree, called the Indian and the White Guy, who get away with the sort of "racial" humour you might have seen in the Catskills during the '50s because they are, in fact, and Indian and a white guy.

Even the new material -- stuff about social networking, Michael Jackson and Kanye West -- had the aroma of corn about it, as did a fast-paced barrage of groaners that, from time to time, commented on different ethnic groups, and more often, played on the apparently endless comedic chemistry between Indians and white people.

From the healing power of comedy to the healing power of country music, last night had it all -- for a much-needed morale boost to fans of the Big Valley Jamboree.