Atlanta Music 2014: Outkast, Brooks top slate of big-name concerts

But while the events of those four weeks in September brought an unprecedented amount of musical entertainment to Atlanta, the other 11 months offered a few noteworthy moments as well.

Gregg Allman tribute

Gregg Allman and Georgia are synonymous, so it made perfect sense that a tribute to honor his musical legacy took place at the Fox Theatre, a venue with deep Allman Brothers Band roots. The January concert, filmed for broadcast on AXS TV, featured an all-star cast of veteran musicians including Jackson Browne, Vince Gill and Widespread Panic and newer acts who worship at the altar of Allman, such as Eric Church and Zac Brown. But none of them could compare to the magic of watching ABB steamroll through "Whipping Post" for what turned out to be the last time in Atlanta. A similar tribute concert for Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Fox in November indicates that there might be more of these star-studded events in our future.

Sam Smith

In October, a burgeoning superstar played to a sold-out-in-minutes crowd at The Tabernacle and solidified his spot in the pantheon of British blue-eyed soul singers (see: Mick Hucknall of Simply Red, Boy George and Rick Astley). That would be Sam Smith, the suit-wearing, shy-smiling, understated dreamboat behind "Stay With Me," the most sublime hit of 2014. It's no surprise that Smith garnered a leading six nominations for the February Grammy Awards. It's even less unbelievable that his encore performance at the Fox Theatre in January sold out even faster than his Atlanta debut.

2 mega shows at the Dome

With all of the chatter surrounding the status of the new stadiums for Atlanta's sports team, let's pause to reflect on the enormity of two shows that electrified the Georgia Dome for two different reasons. If there is still a persistent ringing in yours ears since Oct. 1, blame One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer, who charmed 50,000-plus fans into an ear-bleeding frenzy of screams by merely walking on stage and tossing their artfully tousled locks. In July, Beyonce and Jay Z enthralled a slightly older demographic with their stylish set of see-sawing hits. The power couple slammed through more than 40 songs while pawing at each other enough to effectively dismiss those breakup rumors.

Garth Brooks

It sounded crazy, but Garth Brooks has always defied expectations. The country behemoth penciled in Atlanta as the second city to play on his first tour in 18 years. That's not the crazy part. The fact that he plugged in for seven shows – the first artist to do so consecutively at Philips Arena – says plenty about his enduring legacy. A ticket price of $71.50 also didn't hurt – a relative bargain for an artist of Brooks' stature. His record-breaking run surpassed his own record, when he played the Omni for five performances in 1996. Oh yeah, and forget about the fact that on some dates, he played two shows a night. Tired? Not this cowboy, who rocked every one.

Outkast

When Outkast announced at the beginning of the year that they would head back to the stage for the first time in more than a decade for a series of festival dates, fans around the country rejoiced. Finally, the chance to see Atlanta's pioneering duo of Andre "3000" Benjamin and Big Boi hustling through their revolutionary rap. Their April performance at CounterPoint Music Festival outside of Rome was thrilling for the novelty factor. But it wasn't until the guys took over Centennial Olympic Park for three September nights – dubbing the festivities Outkast #ATLast – and enlisted a roll call of Atlanta talent including Janelle Monae, Future, 2 Chainz, Big Gipp, Childish Gambino, Sleepy Brown and Killer Mike, that the full effect of what this group means to the history of Atlanta rap truly resonated.