This time around Edwin McCain didn’t invite a packed Hilton Coliseum to People’s Bar and Grill, but 300 or so of his good friends showed up to experience the post-Thanksgiving bash with the man and his voice.

McCain played to a sold-out crowd, for the second time, Sunday night and the only think missing was Darius Rucker and his sidekicks, but McCain quickly made up for their absence with his energy and his showmanship.

“It’s very, very good to be back here,” McCain exclaimed. “The record company asked me ‘Why are you selling so many records there?,’ and I said ‘Cause Ames, Iowa is a cool f—king place,” as he opened with “Real Steel,” off his debut disc Honor Among Thieves.

The only noticeable difference from his last trip to Ames was the drummer. McCain called on Dave Harrison, who’s “helping us out in a pinch” to replace T.J. Hall for this leg of the tour. Hall is sidelined with a bad back, but Harrison filled in admirably and for this being his fifth gig with the band, he didn’t miss a beat.

At one point someone in the crowd shouted out something about the David Letterman Show. “Letterman was pretty damn frightening, to answer your question,” McCain said. “When they said it’s your turn I was like, ‘Put Michael J. Fox on quick.'”

Proving that McCain is far from a solo player, each member of his band had extensive solos during “Don’t Bring Me Down.” First up was Craig Shields, playing every sax known to man, along with a recorder/flute thing and then it was Scott Bannevich’s turn to burn it on the bass. Sounding like a funky “Seinfeld” soundtrack, Bannevich showed flash and flair, before giving it up to the man of the night, McCain.

All throughout the show, McCain played with the crowd like putty in his hands, telling stories and having sing-alongs and at one point McCain showed his disappointment with the lack of crowd participation when the crowd didn’t follow his lead.

“I’ve never ben hung out to dry like that,” McCain commented after no one sang along with him. “Now you all gotta’ sing to redeem yourself.”

And the crowd did, at least for that song.

McCain’s voice sounded great, not once did he strain or crack, while singing the majority of songs from his CD, but he did throw in a new one, along with a little story.

“I was in Virginia not long ago when I wrote this one, or came up with the idea,” McCain remembered. “It was dark out and I was looking down at my feet so I wouldn’t trip and above me was this amazing sky. I was so worried about tripping over my feet that I forgot there’s a sky…”

Which brings about a point of reflection. McCain’s song’s are very personal, from “Sorry to a Friend,” a song about growing older, to “Alive,” a song about record-store owner who lost his father and wife in the same week but looked to music to give him strength.

These are songs that bring about goose bumps all over your body, but perhaps the most famous personal song in McCain’s repertoire is “Solitude,” and the crowd reacted like a crazy bunch of hyenas.

Going by appearances alone, it looked like they showed up for this one song, because McCain didn’t have to coax them into singing with them, the crowd was louder than he was during the choruses, a feat that McCain seemingly loved, smiling and laughing the whole time.

After the song McCain wanted to take the crowd home with him. “Hey Craig, can we fit all these people on the bus with us?,” McCain asked the sax man.

After the set McCain was coaxed back on stage to do an encore, and he happily obliged by appearing on stage alone with his guitar, as he started to play “3 A.M.”

“I wrote this song years ago and it’s about being on the road and it seems to be truer and truer…,” McCain lamented. And he ended the show just like he started, quietly and quickly, without too much hoopla, as he walked off the stage and took a seat near the window to sign autographs and chat with his fans.