Jackson Free Press

Long before the start of Rick Springfield's sold-out "Stripped Down Tour" show at the Ameristar Casino in Vicksburg, excited guests formed a line from the entrance of the Bottleneck Blues Bar back toward the slot machines. The door flew open at 8:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 14, and guests politely poured into their seats in time for an introductory video. It featured Springfield playing music from his childhood to the present, along with snippets with his various co-stars from his acting endeavors, including "General Hospital" and "Ricky and the Flash." Meryl Streep posed in one photo, and in another, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who admitted to being a big Springfield fan.

The opening salvo made it perfectly clear that this was going to be experience from the songwriter and guitarist, who has sold more than 25 million records and had 17 hits reach the Top 40 in his career. Instead, this was to be a Las Vegas-level cruise down Springfield's memory lane, self-piloted from the scenic bank of the Mississippi River.

This gig was by no means "unplugged." It was Springfield that was "stripped down"—of his band mates, that is. As soon as he jumped onto the stage, he immediately assumed command as a solo acoustic, electric, digital, and even iPhone-based musician, providing a high-energy backdrop for his sarcastic but endearing wit, colorful storytelling and audience engagement.

Weaving music and narrative with video excerpts of his life, Springfield described the triumph of commitment to his music over youthful delinquency, teenage idolatry, soap-opera fanfare and even a promising acting career. At each juncture of his life, Springfield had composed era-inspired songs, some of which are still unpublished. He performed several of those at this event with technical assistance from his playfully taunted sound engineer, Matty Spindel.

Beginning in their original stripped-down version, many of the tracks that Springfield performed would morph mid-song into digitally assisted multi-track productions that appear on his new "Stripped Down" album, which hit stores in February of this year. Springfield nailed the lead vocals while performing complex guitar work over backing tracks of other instruments and his own harmonies. Audience-engaging songs from his youth included "Me and Johnny" and "Painted Girl," both predating songs like "Oh Well," which he told us he once played under incoming mortar fire at Bob Hope's U.S.O. Tours in Vietnam—taking back to a time many of us would rather forget. Improvising through that era, Springfield burst into bits of "Wipe Out," with the audience providing foot drum rolls, and "Light My Fire," hand-thumping his acoustic guitar to mimic the sound of incoming explosions.

Springfield introduced his most prolific '80s-era music after belting out "Rumbling and Tumbling," a raucous slide-guitar number from his blues days. With his audience singing along on choruses, Springfield also paid tribute to his heroes, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Badfinger.

Springfield then performed his latter hits, such as "Affair of the Heart," "Don't Talk to Strangers," "I've Done Everything For You" and "You Better Love Somebody." I was having so much fun that I completely forgot about his magnum opus, "Jessie's Girl," until he quietly introduced its telltale power chords and announced that it would be the last of the night. The audience vocals nearly matched Springfield's in intensity. A Q&A period and meet-and-greet session after the show closed the evening.

At age 66, Springfield still has his voice, his chops, his contagious energy, his self-effacing sense of humor and good looks, and his performance at Ameristar showcased it all. For more than two hours, Springfield took quite a few of us blue hairs in the audience back to our own glory days—when we were mostly just a bunch of kids ourselves, wishing that we, too, had Jessie's girl.

Rick Springfield's "Stripped Down" album is available now on iTunes, Amazon and other digital retailers.