Brooks & Dunn's Set

It's extremely difficult for me to believe I've never had the opportunity to see Brooks & Dunn perform together. Although I have seen them separately many times during different events I've covered in Nashville. What a treat it was for me to finally see them together. Blasting on to the stage with "Hillbilly Deluxe," this duo was met with a thunderous burst of appreciation.

Performing one constant hit after hit, their 15 song set again was just not enough.

"Rock My World (Little Country Girl)" gave Kix Brooks the opportunity to pull one lucky fan from the audience and dance with her for the better part of the song. Ronnie Dunn also took his turn thrilling fans by throwing one drumstick after another to the audience during "You Can't Take The Honky Tonk Out Of They Girl." Ending their turn with the multi-award winning "Believe," and then on to the patriotic, "Only In America." One by one during the song a soldier from each branch of service carried an item to the stage placing it just so to create a beautiful memorial of thanks for all the men and women who have ever served our country. As the song ended, the sky above us exploded with red, white and blue streamers that completely showered anyone sitting in the first twenty rows or so. Absolutely a five star performance by the best duo to ever grace country music.

Kenny Chesney's Set

Next, came the guy everyone had been waiting to see. Huge screens above the stage began showing the audience images from the Kenny-Cam, as it gave us a live look at the path Kenny was taking to get to the stage.

Clad in his perfect fitting blue jeans, a sleeveless green t-shirt, and a black cowboy hat, Kenny Chesney finally appeared on stage singing "Beer In Mexico." The roar from the crowd was almost deafening. Cleveland loves Kenny and judging from the performance he gave that night, Kenny loved Cleveland. "Summertime," "Big Star," and "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem," were just a few of a whole slew of songs we got to hear that night. One of my many favorites had to include, "Anything But Mine." The lyrics mentions several times about the author returning to Cleveland and the crowd loved to sing along. Kenny had a few surprises up his sleeve first bringing Kix Brooks back to the stage to perform "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone" and then a few songs later introducing special guest Uncle Kracker, to help sing their hit song, "When The Sun Goes Down." Kracker hung around for a couple more songs, one of which was the legendary song, "Midnight Rider." As his 23 song set was winding down, the last song for the evening was "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy." Kenny had to have been out of steam by this time, although you wouldn't have thought so. He was all over the stage all night long. Trying to get a few nice close-up pictures of him, and not being right at the stage was almost impossible. As soon as you thought you had the shot, he moved. Thrilling fans with high-fives and autographs from the stage, it's very apparent why this superstar has achieved all that he has. A concert I won't soon forget and even though I don't care for stadium shows, but I would most definitely consider another one if Kenny comes back.