Two musical icons took the stage at the First Council Casino on New Year’s Eve in a tiny town in Northern Oklahoma. Buddy Guy and Gregg Allman, both members of the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame played blues soaked sets to an enthusiastic crowd.

For Allman, it was his first appearance onstage in four months as he has been having health issues from a liver transplant. His health affected his physical capabilities but his voice, we are glad to report, is very strong. Before it was his turn to play, however, blues legend Buddy Guy took the stage.

His band launched into an instrumental designed to introduce the guitar hero. Guy’s keyboard player took to the microphone and said, “Please welcome six time Grammy Award winner and member of the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame Buddy Guy.” With that, Guy strutted his stuff on his Fender electric and immediately went into a blistering solo. His set list was filled with blues standards, a few tips of the hat to rock legends and a couple of newer songs. He treated the crowd to a show filled with music, stories and surprises.

At one point, Guy left the stage and walked through the entire venue, both jamming on his guitar and singing a song. He even made an appearance in the ladies room as one woman reported she opened the stall to go back to her seat only to find Guy jamming in the bathroom! As he made his way closer to the center of the venue, he stopped to serenade an attractive woman, hypnotizing her the way only a true bluesman can. Finally, after ten minutes, he returned to the stage and put on a blues guitar clinic leaving all in attendance cheering wildly.

“Hoochi Coochi Man” was a huge hit with the crowd but Guy did much more than just go through the motions on the blues classic. During the songs first verse, a man from the crowd beat Buddy to the lyric. Guy stopped and looked and laughed and commented to the guy that he “fucked that song up” and he started over and showed the guy how it was done.

During his set, Guy would often put his right index finger to his lips and whisper “shhh” into the mike and then either play a soulful lick at a very low volume or tell a story. During the intro to his song “Skin Deep” Guy was sharing a story about his mother, a sharecropper from Louisiana, and how she taught him some valuable life lessons, when a fan yelled something from the audience. Guy looked into the crowd and said, matter of factly, “Would you shut the fuck up.” The entire crowd howled with laughter and Guy said, “I used to be scared to tell you to shut the fuck up…but not anymore.”

The end of Guy’s set saw the icon giving a few impressions of some of his most famous contemporaries, including Jimi Hendrix and his song “Voodoo Child,” Eric Clapton and his Cream classic “Sunshine of Your Love” and John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom Boom Boom.” He played the guitar behind his back, with a drumstick and during “Sunshine of Your Love” he even played the guitar with a small white towel that he whirled around with this right hand as his left hand fretted the notes, as the towel twirled faster, the solo picked up speed.

Towards the end of his set, Guy played a song from his last studio album in which he revealed that he was 74 years young. At the end of the song, he got honest and admitted the song was over a year old and that he was now 75 years young.

When he left the stage, all in attendance were standing on their feet giving him a standing ovation and yelling for an encore that was not meant to be. It was hard to believe that the show was only half over as Gregg Allman was up next.

As mentioned earlier, Allman is returning to the stage while still not 100 percent, health wise. From the moment he took the stage one could visually see him struggle to climb up to his B3 Hammond organ. He used music stands to house sheet music and lyrics for songs that he had sung for over 40 years. He was very soft spoken as an emcee and said little more than, “How is everyone doing out there” and he took a long time between songs. Once he started playing, all of that ceased to matter. Allman’s voice is truly one of a kind and he is singing stronger than this writer has heard him in sometime. While the music played, his limitations disappeared and he delivered song after song of bluesy rock tunes that had his fans smiling.

The show opened with his classic solo tune “I’m No Angel’ and was followed up with the Allman Brothers classic “Statesboro Blues.” Allman reached deep into his solo catalog with the touching “Please Call Home” before producing a great live rendition of the AB classic “Wasted Words.”

“Just Another Rider” from his latest album, Low Country Blues, was one of the best musical moments of the evening. Allman returned to his 1973 solo debut Laid Back with the Jackson Browne penned “These Days.” The crowd sat quietly through the songs they did not know but perked back up when the Allman Brothers classic “Melissa” was performed.

With only three minutes left until Midnight, the band jammed an instrumental until the countdown began and then played the customary “Auld Lange Syne as balloons dropped from the ceiling. Allman calmed the crowd down when he said that he wrote the next song back in 1969 before playing the opening notes to “Midnight Rider.” The show’s main set ended with a funked up version of “Whipping Post” and an encore of “One Way Out.”

At the end of the day, Allman’s show, despite its lulls between songs and the singer’s pained movements while switching between organ and guitar, was good. The songs were performed very well and his fans ate up every note. There is, however, a lesson to be learned. Even if you’re Gregg Allman, a true rock star in every sense of the word, and one of America’s most successful songwriters, don’t let Buddy Guy open a show for you. For as good as Allman was, on this night, the show belonged to Buddy. That is not to say Allman was not good, he was. He sounded great and for diehard fans he played some tunes that you won’t hear at an Allman Brothers concert. Buddy Guy, however, at the age of 75 years young, was a dynamo of energy from the moment he stepped on the stage. His music transcends race, gender and age and he still plays the heck out of his instrument. He is testament to the blues and is worthy of, and has earned, the moniker of “Living Legend.”