Johnny Reid dances during his performance at the Big Valley Jamboree mainstage yesterday. (Amber Bracken, Sun Media)

CAMROSE - The big wow. Johnny Rocket.

Just like people are thrown off when they hear the Scottish brogue of "Italian" IndyCar driver Dario Franchitti, I was thrown off by seeing Scottish singer Johnny Reid at the Big Valley Jamboree.

Not because he's a Scotsman at a country music festival. I was thrown off because I've seen him before here.

That time he was a good up-and-comer, trotting out solid tunes, kind of a Charlie Major with a bluesier voice. This time, he was full-on Johnny Showstopper.

Johnny Reid's goodtime gospel/country/rockin'/blues hour.

At times he could record that next great album good ol' Bob Seger never quite got around to.

At other times he sounds like he could do that next great Tom Jones album before the Welsh master gets to it.

Rockin' a full band and the drop-dead backup singers, this was one of the top-five sets I've ever seen in a dozen-plus years at BVJ.

* In the immortal words of Slim Pickens in the crazy/great movie Blazing Saddles: "I am depressed."

Slim's bad-ass sheriff character was depressed because he couldn't "a whoompin; and a whompin' and a ridin' " through a town, scaring its hapless citizens like he used to.

I am depressed because I didn't get to hear the Glen Campbell I was used to.

The showbiz legend still has the long list of hits, but his voice was more miss than hit yesterday during his 5 p.m. set.

Keep in mind, I'll be happy to be breathing at 73 years old, let alone singing. And Campbell did look a happy and content man, hanging out backstage before and after his show, no entourage, no bodyguards, no ego.

No one here can razz on his infamous Nick Nolte-like mugshot of a few years back because that's what each and every one of us looks like each and every Big Valley morning when we crawl out of wherever it was we landed in.

Through the '70s, Campbell was as big as it gets, sealing the deal in both gold and platinum, with hit after hit, all of which were trotted out yesterday, from Gentle On My Mind to By the Time I get to Phoenix to Rhinestone Cowboy.

Just makes it harder for me to hear what I heard.

* It was a sweet afternoon at the Big Valley Jamboree, and turned out to be about sweet girls singing some sweet songs.

A family situation called away Lacombe's Gord Bamford from playing the Big Valley mainstage but helped arrive from near and far.

The far away was right near when Jetty Road, fronted by Aussie twins Lee and Paula Bowman (Can we call them the Keith Urbanettes?), were playing Thursday night's kick-off party in the Molson Saloon.

They got the call to stick around and move across the midway for yesterday's show. Good move. They are mainstage material. Polished, but not so slick to the point where they sound manufactured.

They are described on their website as part Corrs and part Fleetwood Mac, add a little twang and it's an accurate description to start.

Tracy Millar doesn't have to go far to get to the Jamboree. The girl from Hines Creek has lived in Camrose long enough to be a regular attendee before her singing got her to the mainstage. She's always been a fresh face offering up an old-school country sound and did her thing again yesterday.