ZZ Top & Dwight Yoakam in Cary

ZZ Top are an American blues-rock band formed in Houston in 1969 and long identified with guitarist Billy Gibbons, bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard. Their tightly wound boogie and electric blues produced songs including “La Grange,” “Tush,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’” and “Sharp Dressed Man,” while the albums Tres Hombres and Eliminator became central to their catalogue. The Worldwide Texas Tour of 1976 and 1977 used a Texas-shaped stage and incorporated live animals into its production. The band later returned to arenas on the Afterburner World Tour and marked five decades with the 50th Anniversary Tour in 2019. After Hill’s death in 2021, longtime guitar technician Elwood Francis took over bass duties for the band’s concerts. The band plays most often in the United States and has returned repeatedly to the United Kingdom and Germany for tours and festival appearances.

Dwight Yoakam is an American country singer-songwriter and actor, born in 1956 in Pikeville, Kentucky, and raised in Ohio. His honky-tonk music draws heavily on the Bakersfield sound. The 1986 debut album Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. introduced songs including “Honky Tonk Man” and “Guitars, Cadillacs”; later recordings include “Streets of Bakersfield,” a duet with Buck Owens, “Fast as You” and “Ain’t That Lonely Yet.” In the early 1980s, he performed in Los Angeles rock and punk clubs on shows featuring acts such as The Blasters and Los Lobos. The LSD Tour brought him together with Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle for a co-headlining run in 2018, extending a live career built around theatres, casinos and outdoor venues. He has returned to Nashville for Grand Ole Opry appearances, while An Evening with Dwight Yoakam & The Bakersfield Beat brought a residency to the Encore Theater in Las Vegas.