David Kersh can be held responsible for further blurring the lines between 1970s rock and '90s country.

But the rising country star is making no apologies for covering Eric Clapton's 1978 slow-dance classic, Wonderful Tonight, the latest single off the album If I Never Stop Loving You.

On Mr. Kersh's version, violins and pedal steel bolster the familiar guitar riff, but it stays fairly faithful to the original, suggesting that a country song had been lurking under the surface all along.

"It really lent itself to the (country format), but I think there's new listeners who've never heard it before," said the 27-year-old performer in a recent phone conversation from San Antonio, where he was playing for the opening of a new mega-honky tonk club. "It's been said before, but I believe that the country of the '90s is the rock and roll of the '70s."

Mr. Kersh and his band headline a concert Wednesday night at the Jessye Norman Amphitheater at Riverwalk Augusta.

After paying his dues in honky tonks in Texas and Oklahoma, he signed a record deal in 1995. He has since scored four top 10 singles on the country charts.

You may have seen him on the high-profile TV commercial for Southwestern Airlines, where he talks about cheap flights to Nashville and an excerpt of his hit Goodnight Sweetheart is played.

Wednesday's concert, which also features local performers Danny Rhea with Rhes Reeves and the Augusta Allstars, benefits United Cerebral Palsy of Augusta.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kersh is trying to top last year's 243 concert dates and is signed up for the blockbuster Brooks & Dunn and Reba McEntire tour this summer.

"I've slept in my own bed six times this year," he said.

The Brooks & Dunn/Reba tour was the second-highest-grossing tour in country music last year, behind only superstar Garth Brooks. "I think it'll be the No. 1 tour of the year," Mr. Kersh speculated.