Alaska country singer Ken Peltier returned to the live stage at the Alaska State Fair on Thursday night for the first time since being diagnosed with throat cancer in 2008.

A small but dedicated crowd settled into damp seats at the outdoor Borealis Theatre in a misty drizzle to welcome back the man widely considered to be the most popular country/Western musician in the state. Peltier regularly opened for big-name visiting acts and filled taverns with enthusiastic fans before medical treatments put him onto what he jokingly called "an incredible weight loss program" this year.

After opening numbers by troubadour Hobo Jim and songstress Brook Faulk, who has been fronting the Ken Peltier Band during Peltier's absence, the man himself came on to answer the unspoken question on everyone's mind: "Can he still sing?"

He answered forthwith, belting out Merle Haggard's "Working Man Blues" in his earnest, slightly twangy, bluesy, spot-on voice, and followed it up with his own song, "Home Away from Lonely."

"He sounds good!" exclaimed a woman behind me. Others in the crowd were shouting out, "We love you, Ken!"

He continued with "Educated Man," written by Hobo Jim, probably the closest thing to a national hit either he or Peltier have ever had, and collaborated with Faulk in "Amazing Grace" sung over a bolero beat and the Johnny Cash/June Carter standard, "Jackson."

For the first half of the show, he used his own band. Veteran members -- including lead guitarist Doug McCullough, drummer Mike Lashbrook and bass player Bonnie Thayer -- were as tight as ever, generating the powerful pulse that makes folks want to get up and dance. In fact some patrons took advantage of the open aisles to do just that.

Happily, the drizzle abated somewhat. People put away their umbrellas and let cowboy hats provide sufficient protection.

In the second half of the show, his backup band switched to include former players with Waylon Jennings. Waymore's Outlaws, as they're known, include vocalist/guitarist Tommy Townsend, lead guitar Eugene Moles, drummer Ritchie Albright and Jerry Bridges on bass, as well as Fred Newell on steel guitar. Peltier dropped regular mentions of their resumes, which included backing up everyone from Alabama to Donny Osmond.

Understandably, they sang a lot of Jennings' songs: "Never Been to Spain," "I've Always Been Crazy," "I'm a Ramblin' Man," "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way," etc.

But there were some fine items from Peltier's newest CD, recorded with the Outlaws this year, copies of which arrived in Alaska just hours before the show. Cuts like "Red Dirt," "Georgia on a Fast Train" and "Down the Road I Go," all rollicked with classic country-rock timbre, lyrics and attitude. One suspects they might get a wider listening if Peltier didn't live in Palmer -- or maybe that's my paranoid grousing that Alaskans don't get any respect in the Lower 48.

Peltier deserves all the fame he can get. He's a top-drawer crooner and a good guitar player, though somewhat limited by his prosthetic picking hand, the result of a mechanical accident some years ago.

But while it seems the cancer treatments left him able to sing -- "that was a concern," he told the crowd -- it may have reduced his stamina. Banter has often figured in his shows, but on Thursday night he took time out from the music to tell a lot of stories, as if he were giving his vocal chords a rest, like a runner falling into a jog. And he ducked off stage several times. Perhaps that was choreographed to let Faulk and the Outlaws have some prime time and add a little variety into the mix. But he could have done that by staying on stage and strumming in the background.

The old Waylon crew are all polished professionals of the first rank and well worth a listen. Faulk doesn't have Peltier's pipes -- few do -- but she'd earned the right to her solo sets because of her work in keeping the band together and because she introduced Peltier to Waymore's Outlaws, whom she met while performing in Texas and brought to Anchorage last year. She was, in a sense, the author of the concert.

Peltier et al. will perform several more times at the fair and after that at the Mat-Su Lodge, where members of the Outlaws have already done some weekend stints.

Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.

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