Country music fans enjoyed a real treat Saturday night at the Soybean festival as John Stone and Craig Morgan gave a high-energy performance in celebration of country life.

Stone, a rising country artist from Alabama, gained fame for appearing on the TV show “Nashville Star” where he finished the competition in the top 25. He opened with several songs from his debut album, Meet John Stone, including his hit “Hell and Half of Georgia”. As he danced across the stage and sang out to a group of squealing girls near the stage, the rowdy country boy attitude he exuded set the stage perfectly for Craig Morgan.

Morgan’s show was full of energy, with the contagiously light-hearted attitude of Morgan himself coming across in every song. From climbing the stage scaffolding to doing humorous impressions of Bob Dylan and Brad Paisley, it was clear that Morgan was having a good time and leading the audience to do the same. He also put forth a down-to-earth, “plain folks” impression as he spent several minutes mingling with audience members and danced with his wife on stage.

Originally from Dickson, Tenn., Morgan spent 10 years in the military before beginning his country music career. Later, he gained fame in Nashville as a prolific songwriter, and he went on to release his self-titled debut album in 2000. Since then, he has released two other albums, I Love It and My Kind of Livin’. These include hits such as “Almost Home”, “That’s What I Love About Sunday”, and “Redneck Yacht Club”, which continues to be strong on the country charts.

Morgan chooses to focus on positive themes in his lyrics and is famed for his vivid imagery that celebrates life in the country. Even the most ordinary and simple aspects of life, including those that are often looked down upon by those outside the country music culture, are unabashedly depicted as part of a treasured heritage. “The point I try to make is that the mundane things aren’t so mundane after all,” Morgan says on his website. “The simple things like being on a boat with your buddies, or sitting on a porch after church on Sunday aren’t always a part of everybody’s life, because we’re all in such a big rush. But they are a part of who we are.”