There are two kinds of people in the world, "the day people and the night people," according to Thursday-night (Dec. 12) Golden Nugget headliner Ray Wylie Hubbard in recent set opener "Rabbit." And it's the night people's job to entertain National Finals Rodeo fans who spend the day watching the competition at Thomas & Mack Center or cruising Cowboy Christmas at Las Vegas Convention Center for this year's coolest gifts and gear. The Golden Nugget hotel in Downtown Las Vegas features a slew of top-tier night people during the height of NFR, with a few legends joined by an outlaw or two with reverence for honky-tonk heroes.

Ray Wylie Hubbard

Ray Wylie Hubbard

One legend is celebrating his 76th year with a series of concerts that began on his birthday in January at Nashville's venerable Ryman Auditorium, where he was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1976. Ronnie Milsap, who performs Dec. 9, was an R&B recording artist and session musician before Charlie Pride encouraged him to go country. He scored several No. 1s before becoming an Opry member but hit his piano-driven stride afterward with the ballads "What a Difference You've Made in My Life" and "It Was Almost Like a Song." Expect a set full of classics such as "Smoky Mountain Rain," "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me" and "Any Day Now."

Tracy Lawrence, representing the early to mid-'90s school of cowboy singers, headlines Dec. 10. He was discovered in 1991 and released his debut album, Sticks and Stones, that year. His 1993 album Alibis and 1996's Time Marches On continued his streak of successful singles, but his biggest hit came in 2007 with "Find Out Who Your Friends Are." Those songs and more are likely to be part of a set he's been kicking off with the title cut from this year's studio album Made in America.

Lorrie Morgan and Pam Tillis continue their fruitful working relationship with a Dec. 11 concert, featuring solo hits and songs from their critically acclaimed joint efforts Dos Divas from 2013 and 2017's Come See Me and Come Lonely. Tillis, the daughter of "Coca Cola Cowboy" Mel Tillis, established herself in the '80s with albums Homeward Looking Angel and Sweetheart's Dance. Morgan bounced back from the death of country-artist husband Keith Whitley to enter the '90s with No. 1 single "Five Minutes" and continued to score hits throughout the decade.

Jamey Johnson

Jamey Johnson

Hubbard has a detectable influence from Johnny Cash but takes his rough-hewn Americana-roots music into his own dimension. If song titles like "Drunken Poet's Dream" and "Screw You, We're From Texas" aren't enough indication, check out his cover of James McMurtry's "Choctaw Bingo" to find out if he's your guitar man. Like Cash, Waylon Jennings and George Jones are no longer with us, but they were formative influences on Jamey Johnson, who brings his brand of outlaw country on Dec. 13. He's got a thing for Kris Kristofferson too, as his frank confessional song "High Cost of Living" pays homage to the poet songwriter's "Sunday Morning Comin' Down."