Luke Bryan has barely had a chance to sit still and drink a beer since his last spate of Las Vegas residency shows. That might be one reason his next string of Luke Bryan: Vegas concerts will be his last at Resorts World Theatre. Bryan went from five headlining nights in Vegas to a celebration in Nashville of his 30th No. 1 radio hit, “Country On,” to his 14th annual Farm Tour before finishing the remaining dates of his Country On Tour at the end of October.
After playing New Year’s Eve on the Strip, he might need a break. Bryan has released three songs from a forthcoming eighth studio album, including latest single “Southern and Slow,” which followed “Country On” and “But I Got a Beer in My Hand.” He hosted the CMA Awards in November, and heads for Cancún in January to headline the seventh incarnation of his Crash My Playa “concert vacation.”
That leaves February open to hunker down with songwriting colleagues and studio musicians to compose and record enough material to round out his next long player. Themes of good times, good friends, rural roads and small-town nostalgia expressed through Bryan’s baritone flow have never seemed to go out of style since his debut single, “All My Friends Say,” reached No. 5 on the country chart in 2007.
Attribute that to Bryan playing a significant role in country concerts becoming infused with rock-arena energy. Garth Brooks may have upped the game for stage production, but Bryan’s contagious charisma and inexhaustible energy drives audiences wild. He’s not afraid to take chances and mix things up, as most recent Luke Bryan: Vegas setlists testify. He drew from latest singles, earliest recordings and biggest hits to open shows and changed song order night to night.
In other words, Bryan makes things interesting for his following by making things interesting for himself. The video for “But I Got a Beer in My Hand” seems like one long take as hitchhiker Bryan gets dropped off at a house party and seamlessly goes from leading the band to playing a hand of cards and back. The 2024 lineup for Crash My Playa includes star-of-the-moment Jelly Roll along with Jon Pardi, Dierks Bentley and Eddie Montgomery as top featured talent.
His own live set at the CMAs was a show highlight, the audience singing along with a leather-clad Bryan to a medley of “Huntin’, Fishin’ and Lovin’ Every Day,” “One Margarita,” “That’s My Kind of Night,” “Play It Again” and “Country Girl (Shake It for Me).” He’s still at the top of his game, with plenty of greens to shoot before he reaches his back nine.
Bryan could have given up his dreams to take over the family peanut farm business in Georgia. He instead became a plowman’s poet, a backwoods bard, a trailer-park troubadour. An elevated catwalk at Resorts World Theatre allows him to get eye-to-eye with fans in the mezzanine, which serves as both show-stopping stage element and moving metaphor for country’s man of the people.
Resorts World Las Vegas, 8 p.m. Dec. 29-31, Jan. 3 & 5-6, prices vary. axs.com
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