The World is Flatts’

Even if you don’t know you know Rascal Flatts, you have only to think the words “life is a highway” to begin humming their stuff. The Nashville-based, huge-selling modern country trio achieved what few bands can when they turned their cover of Tom Cochrane’s merely catchy tune of that title into arguably the definitive version of the song. (Cake may have done the same with Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” as Johnny Cash did with Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt,” and Hendrix with Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.” Discuss.) That track graced Pixar’s Cars, cementing the group as a favorite of pre-teens, who surely helped make Rascal Flatts’ Me and My Gang the fourth-best-selling album of 2006. Not to be outdone, last year’s “Still Feels Good” has gone double-platinum despite blasé reviews. Seems the good people of ’merica still flock to monosyllabic lyrics and power ballads with fiddle solos. If you decide to go, look for plenty of red, white, and blue tattooing and bare legs bracketed by boots and Daisy Dukes on Sunday at 8 p.m. at Cruzan Amphitheatre (601 Sansburys Way, West Palm Beach). Cheap tickets are $30.75; expensive ones, $75.50. Ring ’em up by calling Ticketmaster at 954-523-3309 or logging onto www.ticketmaster.com.
Sun., Aug. 17, 8 p.m., 2008