DATE: Sunday, July 13, 1997                 TAG: 9707130060
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Music review

SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   52 lines

THEY LIKED TIM, THEY LOVED HIM AT THE BALLPARK

One of country music's hottest artists was one of country music's hottest artists.

Tim McGraw was at Harbor Park Saturday afternoon, a-singin' and a-sweatin' - but not a-movin' around much.

The temperature was, according to the thermometers, 85. Out there in the ballpark's wide-open spaces, it felt like someone had put a ``1'' in front of that number.

Harbor Park is a great place for a concert - wonderful sound, the great outdoors - but the concerts should be nighttime events.

McGraw sang for about 75 minutes to an audience that was numerically disappointing, but not musically disappointed.

They mustered up as much enthusiasm as one can muster with blazing saddles.

A lot of the enthusiasm was for - what else? - ``It's Your Love.'' The number-one-on-the-Billboard-chart song was originally intended as a solo piece, and with Mrs. McGraw home changing diapers, that's the way it is in concert.

It's the second mushy love song that has paid off handsomely for McGraw. ``Don't Take the Girl'' was the other. . Number one as far as Saturday's fans were concerned was ``I Like It, I Love It.'' They did - they did. The song, the only encore piece, got them up and jumping. They also did some jumping to the afternoon's first offering, which was McGraw's first number-one hit - ``Indian Outlaw.''

Hits of the future will be found on his latest album, out a few weeks and smack into the number-one spot, pushing George Strait down a notch.

Many of the songs from ``Everywhere'' were featured, including the fun novelty, ``Hard On the Ticker.''

The heat was hard on the entertainer, but he did the best he could.

At one point he told his fans, ``the crazier and louder you guys get, the crazier and louder we get.''

The concert was loud, but not too crazy - enjoyable, but not overwhelming.

At the risk of sounding like a broken CD - it was just too hot, as hot as McGraw's career.

There is a vague little rumor running around - something to the effect that he may return to the area in a few months, under cooler circumstances.

A local band, Wild Heart, opened the show with a good, rousing set. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

RICHARD L. DUNSTON/The Virginian-Pilot

Tim McGraw played many of the songs from his latest album,

``Everywhere,'' Saturday afternoon at Harbor Park in Norfolk. ``It's

Your Love,'' his top-of-the-chart hit, got a big response from the

crowd.

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