You’d be hard pressed to find a matchup more appealing to me than Willie Nelson and John Fogerty. Both men have back catalogues full of songs that are an essential part of American music history. Willie Nelson with songs such as “Crazy,” “Nite Life,” “On The Road Again…” John Fogerty with Creedence Clearwater Revival tunes like “Proud Mary,” “Fortunate Son,” “Have You Ever Seen The Rain…” The lists go on and on. Perhaps even more impressive is that after 50 and 40 years respectively of songwriting and performing, these two are still turning out classic work. One of Willie Nelson’s newest CD’s, (he has six new CD’s out just this year) “It Will Always Be” easily stands among the best of his career. John Fogerty’s 1998 Grammy-winning release, “Blue Moon Swamp” is the best of his long solo career and the only to truly compare to his amazing work with CCR.

Given the stature of the two performers and my love for their music, I sprung for some front row seats where I could really take in all the action. Willie Nelson hit the stage and launched right into a rollicking version of “Whiskey River” which really set the tone for the rest of his set. I was amazed at how spry Willie was for a man of 72 years. You’d never mistake him for Steven Tyler onstage, but he did move around the stage quite a bit and was interacting with the crowd for the entire show — pointing, waving, tossing things into the crowd. I’ve not seen an artist instantly connect in such a personable way with a crowd like Willie did. Willie played most everything you’d expect him to, from his fantastic covers of Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through The Night” and “Me And Bobbie McGee” to “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain” as well as some unexpected covers such as Merle Haggard’s “Working Man Blues” and Toby Keith’s “Beer For My Horses.” Throughout, Willie maintained a comfortable, laid-back vibe that made everyone in the audience feel like they were hanging out on Willie’s back porch while he worked through a few songs. Willie finished up with a great medley of “May The Circle Be Unbroken,” “I Saw The Light,” and new tune called, “I’m Not Superman,” and, surprisingly, “Beer Barrel Polka.”

John Fogerty took the stage as a stark contrast to Willie Nelson’s easy-going style. He immediately lit the place us with a ferocious rendition of “Travellin’ Band” and rarely slowed down from there. Fogerty was in particularly fine form — his voice hasn’t sounded as good in twenty years and he can still work his guitars like few in the business. John appeared to have boundless energy as he ran around, jumping and shouting, all over the stage for entire two hours he played. He also appeared to be having a blast, smiling, mugging for the crowd and joking around with his band. Fogerty mostly stuck with the CCR classics the majority of the crowd seemed to be expecting, but he did sneak in a few songs from his solo catalogue, “Centerfield,” “The Old Man Down The Road,” “Hot Rod Heart,” “Rambunctious Boy,” “Deja Vu (All Over Again)” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Girls.” Early in the set he called Willie Nelson back on stage and together they did a fun version of Hank Williams’ “Jamabalaya (On The Bayou)” that brought the house down. Fogerty also pulled out a few lesser-known CCR chestnuts such as “Ramble Tamble,” “Keep On Chooglin’,” “It Came Out Of The Sky,” and “Bootleg.” Fogerty finished his high-energy set with knockout renditions of “Fortunate Son,” “Bad Moon Rising,” and “Proud Mary” that had the crowd tired and sweaty but thoroughly satisfied.

I took a bunch of pictures at the show, but since only disposable cameras were allowed at the show, I have to get them developed. Stay tuned.

I’ve never been the biggest Dylan fan, but when Shelly won a pair of tickets of the radio I figured, “why not?” It’s Bob Dylan! When I later saw that a personal favorite of mine, Junior Brown, was among the openers I was stoked to go. The concert was held at the Lexington Legends ballpark, with the stage set up around 2nd base, facing home plate. There was an open area that basically comprised the infield, or you could sit anywhere you liked in the ballpark. We chose to stand up close to the stage.

Elana James and the Continental Two started off the show. The Continental two turned out to be more like the Continental Three as the band consisted of a stand-up bass and two guitars, with Elana on fiddle. They played an infectious blend of hot jazz and western swing with a little bluegrass thrown in for kicks. Think Squirrel Nut Zippers meets Bob Wills. The band really appeared to be having fun onstage, ripping off one hot number after another, a highlight being their cover of “Nagasaki” (Where the women wicky wacky woo.) The enthusiasm of the performers definitely rubbed on the crowd who were completely won over by a band I’m sure most had never heard of.

Elana James was followed by the inimitable Junior Brown. Junior started off with a cut from his first record, “Broke Down South of Dallas” and followed it up with his DUI anthem, “Party Lights.” He got off to a slightly rough start. He was missing some notes on his “guit-steel,” a contraption of his own devise that features a guitar and a lap steel fused together with two fretboards that he sets on what appears to be a small music stand in front of him. Early in the set he appeared to be having difficulty keeping his mouth in front of the mic, which led to some sound issue on vocals. But, after accidentally unplugging his guit-steel in the middle of a song, he came around and brought the house down during the second half of the show. The crowd was particularly receptive to his hits, “My Wife Thinks You’re Dead” and his fabulous cover of Red Simpson’s “Highway Patrol.” He finished off the set with a blistering rendition of the instrumental pick-fest of “Sugarfoot Rag.”

After the smoke from Junior’s guitar picking cleared, Jimmy Vaughan, brother to Stevie Ray and founder of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, took the stage to cool things off a bit with some blues. After two quick songs with his band, he called out “Austin’s Queen of The Blues” Lee Ann Barton to do a few numbers, which included his hit “Boom-Bapa-Boom” which got the crowd rocking almost as much as his cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Texas Flood.”

Bob Dylan took the stage at around 9:00 to massive applause and what appeared to be one giant toke from the mostly well-medicated crowd. He started of his set with a nice version of “Maggie’s Farm.” It’s impossible to discuss his show without bringing up his voice. Let’s face it, Dylan was never much of a singer, but now his voice is truly shot. He seems to have a range of about three notes and grunts out his lyrics in odd staccato rhythms. If it weren’t for his superb band which cranked out nice bluesy arrangements of his songs it would have been difficult to identify what song he was singing. A gruff version of “Times They Are A-Changing” was a crowd favorite. Dylan himself seemed an odd bird onstage. He stood the entire concert at his keyboard about halfway back on the stage and just to the right of center, rarely glancing at the audience, much less acknowledging their existence. Overall the performance felt forced — as if Dylan were just cashing a paycheck. It wasn’t until after the encore of “All Along the Watchtower” and “Like A Rolling Stone” that Dylan finally spoke to the audience to introduce his band and say goodnight. Dylan left the stage at about ten till eleven, leaving me to suspect perhaps a second encore, but none was forthcoming.

For any UK alums, we stopped at Tolly-Ho for a quick snack before heading back north. I had a Tolly-Ho with cheese fries and Shelly had two eggs scrambled with a fried ho. The perfect way to wash down a concert if you ask me.