Country music legends ride into the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas for National Finals Rodeo

There are three places to be during Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. The action takes place at Thomas & Mack Center at UNLV, the Cowboy Christmas gift show is just east of the Strip at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and on Fremont Street, in what has become an NFR tradition, Golden Nugget hosts an all-star lineup of country and Americana live music acts.

For more than 35 years, Confederate Railroad, which performs Friday (Dec. 5) has been energizing venues with its wide array of country rock hits. Fronted by David Allan Coe, expect the band, founded in Marietta, Georgia, to deliver songs like "Trashy Women," "Jesus and Mama," "She Took It Like a Man," "Queen of Memphis" and many more.

It will be a special evening when Mark Chesnutt takes the stage at the Golden Nugget Showroom Friday night (Dec. 6). He’s bouncing back from quadruple bypass surgery this summer to play his classic style of country for rodeo fans after testing out his ticker in October with a concert at the High Horse Saloon in Texas City, Texas. Fans were mighty glad to have the “Bubba Shot the Jukebox” singer performing again, who obliged them with handshakes toward the end of his set and signed an acoustic guitar for a fan.

Chesnutt emerged in the early ’90s with a traditionalist persona and a voice George Jones fans could love, eventually scoring 14 No. 1 hits and 23 Top 10 singles such as “I’ll Think of Something,” “Old Flames Have New Names,” and “Blame It on Texas.”

Thompson Square hasn't performed at The Showroom as part of Golden Nugget’s NFR concert series prior to this year, but the husband-and-wife duo are making their debut in a big way Saturday night (Dec. 7). Keifer and Shawna Thompson broke out on the country music scene in 2010 with their monster No. 1 hit “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not.” 

They scored another No. 1 with “If I Didn’t Have You,” firming up the following they continue to serenade today with their sweet vocal blend and genuine personalities. The Thompsons took some time off in the 2010s to tend to family, but Thompson Square is back in full force playing newer songs in their set such as “Without You” and “Country In My Soul” as well as cuts from their critically acclaimed 2018 album Masterpiece.

Ray Wylie Hubbard has been serenading his following with annual NFR sets longer than some of this year’s rodeo contestants have been riding bulls and roping steers. Hubbard is both national treasure and cult artist that has drawn legendary figures such as Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh and Chris Robinson to perform on his latest albums.

The titles of songs such as “Snake Farm,” “Drunken Poet’s Dream” and “Conversation with the Devil” alone indicate the Oklahoma-bred rootsy stew of blues, rock and country the singer-songwriter has brewed over the years. That stew is a dish best served live at places like the Golden Nugget, where on Sunday (Dec. 8) Hubbard will surely perform his cover of James McMurtry’s “Choctaw Bingo” from his 2005 album Delirium Tremolos.

Pam Tillis and Lorrie Morgan, who perform Monday (Dec. 9), had a lot in common before teaming up in 2009. Both were scions of country music singers (Mel Tillis and George Morgan, respectively), grew up in the music industry and performed at the Grand Ole Opry as children. They also carved out successful careers individually before embarking on their first Grits and Glamour Tour.

Tillis and Morgan are currently alternating solo dates with Grits and Glamour collab concerts that allow them to add their voices to each other’s solo material and harmonize on covers such as Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and Barbara Mandrell’s “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool.” Setlists as of late feature radio favorites by Tillis such as “Maybe It Was Memphis,” and “Mi Vida Loca” alongside Morgan classics like “Something In Red” and “Except for Monday.” If fans at Golden Nugget are really lucky Monday night the ladies will sing “Walk Right Back,” a hit for the Everly Brothers in 1961 and Anne Murray in 1978, in the fun and loose fashion of a Grits and Glamour show.

Terri Clark is a country performer’s country performer. Born in Quebec and raised in Alberta, Clark was Canadian grits to Shania Twain’s glamour when both artists emerged in the mid-’90s. She released her self-titled album through Mercury Records in 1995, followed by two more platinum-selling albums in 1996 (Just the Same) and 1998 (How I Feel).

She’s on an upswing as of late, with her latest album, Take Two, featuring duets with Ashley McBryde, Kelly Clarkson and Lainey Wilson, among others. Clark joined Wilson to sing album track “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me” at this year’s CMA Fest in June, with the pair receiving a wildly enthusiastic reception. Clark, who went on to play Nashville’s hallowed Ryman Auditorium for the first time in August, performs as part of Golden Nugget’s NFR lineup Tuesday night (Dec. 10) for the first time since 2021.

The Bellamy Brothers go with Golden Nugget’s NFR concert series like bareback riding goes with NFR. Howard and David Bellamy had their share of summer songs blasting from transistor radios in the ’70s but shifted to the country charts by the ’80s. It was David that opened the door to success when his song “Spiders and Snakes” became a hit for Jim Stafford in 1974.

Two years later, the Bellamys scored with “Let Your Love Flow,” which helped carve out the soft-rock format that Loggins & Messina, Poco and fellow Floridian Jimmy Buffett pioneered. They ended the ’70s with the “If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me,” which put them on country radio stations and solidified their career. They perform Wednesday and Thursday (Dec. 11-12).

Larry Fleet (Dec. 13) is solidifying his career now. The Tennessee singer-songwriter with the big beard absorbed the lessons of influences such as Merle Haggard, Otis Redding and Willie Nelson in his youth and by his early 20s was gigging in live venues. He was discovered singing at a wedding in 2017 and, four years later, released his hit “Where I Find God,” which currently has nearly 40 million views on YouTube and will likely be the highlight of his Golden Nugget set on Friday (Dec. 13).

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