From music writer Craig Havighurst:

I didn't get to see all of Marty Stuart's late-night, post-Flameworthy Awards jam Wednesday, but what I did see was a sellout crowd of the hard-core Fan Fair faithful ready to party their fanny packs off for the next four days.

They went berserk for Montgomery Gentry, whose over-loud and muddied set recovered with a rockin' Hillbilly Shoes, with Marty playing guitar.

They cheered Stuart's wonderful Tennessee Mafia Jug Band, featuring banjo-spinnin', tobaccer-chewin', overall-wearin' Leroy Troy. They got into a sloppy but heartfelt quartet of Today I Started Loving You Again, featuring Kentucky Headhunter Richard Young, T. Graham Brown and Ray Benson.

ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons made a cameo appearance but didn't perform. The crowd was nonplussed, however, over Unknown Hinson, who can play some wicked cool guitar but who didn't quite fit in. He's odd, yet strange.

By Brad Schmitt