State Fair Adds Clay Walker with Special Guest Tracy Byrd to Lineup

LEWISBURG, WV (03/21/2022) (readMedia)– Officials at the State Fair of West Virginia are excited to announce country legends Clay Walker and Tracy Byrd to the 2022 Concert Series on Sunday, August 14, at 7pm. Tickets will go on sale Friday, March 25, at 10am.

“Having Clay Walker and Tracy Byrd at the State Fair of West Virginia was an easy decision,” State Fair CEO Kelly Collins stated. “These country legends put on a fantastic show that you won’t want to miss,”

Tickets will only be available via ETIX at https://statefairofwv.com/entertainment/ or by calling 1-800-514-ETIX (3849) Monday through Friday 9 am – 6 pm or Saturday 9 am to 5 pm. Tickets will not be sold at the State Fair Box Office until later in the spring.

The 10-day State Fair of West Virginia is celebrating 97 years of “Mountain Grown Fun”, on August 11-22, 2022. The State Fair of West Virginia, with a $13.8 million-dollar economic impact on the state of West Virginia, is a 501 © 3 non-profit corporation committed to the traditions of agriculture, family entertainment, and education. For more information, please visit www.statefairofwv.com, or follow fair events on Facebook and Twitter.

Clay Walker

Can Clay Walker deliver? That’s the question, and he’s not afraid of it. In fact, he’s positioned himself to answer it squarely – one way or another – this year. With new creative and business teams and a deep well of hard-earned wisdom, Walker relishes the challenge. “I’ve prepared myself for this moment in my career – mentally, physically and artistically,” he says. “I’ve never been more ready.”

In a sense, the question is absurd for a recording artist, songwriter and entertainer with 31 charted singles, a dozen No. 1s, four platinum albums and decades of performances to his credit. Titles spanning 15 years and still receiving strong airplay include “Live Until I Die,” “Dreaming With My Eyes Open,” “This Woman And This Man,” “Hypnotize The Moon,” “Rumor Has It,” “Then What,” “The Chain Of Love,” “I Can’t Sleep” and “She Won’t Be Lonely Long.”

Walker’s still robust touring schedule – 80 shows last year – continues to fuel interest in his releases, most recently the 76-song compilation Clay Walker – The Complete Albums 1993-2002. Among them is the chart-topper “If I Could Make A Living,” which just celebrated the 25th anniversary of reaching its airplay peak, despite its singer showing no slippage in his celebrated matinee idol looks and megawatt smile. Meanwhile, Walker’s native Texas continues to be a centerpiece, whether it’s performing the National Anthem at the 2019 World Series in Houston, or giving back at February 2020’s Basin Strong concert benefiting victims and families of the recent shootings in Odessa.

Can Clay Walker deliver? Is he afraid of the question? Hardly. “If I had to lay out my ambition, it’s to become a master at what I do,” he says. “I’m a long ways from it, but that’s exciting as well because there’s a lot of road left.”

Tracy Byrd

Tracy Byrd became a household name on the Country Music Scene in 1993 when his third single, called “Holdin’ Heaven”, off of his MCA Records, self-titled debut album, hit #1 on the Billboard Country Charts. The Album also included the remake hit of Johnny Paycheck’s “Someone to Give my Love to” cementing Byrd as a Traditional Country Troubadour!! The Debut Album went on to be certified Gold, a award signifying sales in excess of 500,000 copies.

Byrd left the major label and released an album on his own, appropriately titled, “Different Things” Although this project was not commercially successful, it garnered Byrd his highest Critical acclaim of his career with Billboard magazine choosing it as one of their Top 10 Country Albums of the Year!!! Through all of these years Byrd became a promoter favorite on the road, performing over 4000 exciting shows across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Australia from 1992 until 2009! He then say’s he needed a break to take care of himself and his most precious thing, his family, wife Michelle, daughter Evee, and son’s Logan and Jared, who had taken a backseat to his career for year’s. He did not perform from 2010-2013, but in 2014 he got back to the music with a new band and a new found sobriety and love of the thing he enjoys so much. Say’s Byrd, “These day’s my life has great balance, with my music being a part of it, not all of it. I can honestly say I have never enjoyed it more!!”

Byrd went back in the studio in June of 2016 and started work on his first project in 10 years. Recorded completely in Tyler, Texas at Rosewood Studios, that album is appropriately titled, All American Texan, which is exactly what he is and has always been. This album features 8 tracks written by Byrd, a fact he is very proud of. The album was released in October of 2016 and has been very well received by his fans and critics alike.

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State Fair of WV Adds Foreigner to 2022 Lineup

LEWISBURG, WV (02/21/2022) (readMedia)– Officials at the State Fair of West Virginia are excited to add rock legends Foreigner to the 2022 Concert Series on Saturday, August 13, at 8 pm. Tickets will go on sale Friday, February 25, at 10 AM.

“The 97th Annual State Fair of West Virginia is on it’s way, and we are extremely happy to add Foreigner to this year’s grandstand lineup,” State Fair CEO Kelly Collins stated. “If you haven’t seen them in concert yet, you need to this August!”

Tickets will only be available via ETIX at https://statefairofwv.com/entertainment/ or by calling 1-800-514-ETIX (3849) Monday through Friday 9 am – 6 pm or Saturday 9 am to 5 pm. Tickets will not be sold at the State Fair Box Office until later in the spring.

The 10-day State Fair of West Virginia is celebrating 97 years of “Mountain Grown Fun”, on August 11-22, 2022. The State Fair of West Virginia, with a $13.8 million-dollar economic impact on the state of West Virginia, is a 501 © 3 non-profit corporation committed to the traditions of agriculture, family entertainment, and education. For more information, please visit www.statefairofwv.com, or follow fair events on Facebook and Twitter.

Foreigner

With 10 multi-platinum albums and 16 Top 30 hits, FOREIGNER is universally hailed as one of the most popular rock acts in the world with a formidable musical arsenal that continues to propel sold-out tours and album sales, now exceeding 80 million.

Responsible for some of rock and roll’s most enduring anthems including “Juke Box Hero,” “Cold As Ice,” “Hot Blooded,” “Waiting For A Girl Like You,” “Feels Like The First Time,” “Urgent,” “Head Games,” “Say You Will,” “Dirty White Boy,” “Long, Long Way From Home” and the worldwide #1 hit, “I Want To Know What Love Is,” FOREIGNER still rocks the charts more than 40 years into the game with massive airplay and continued Billboard Top 200 album success. Audio and video streams of FOREIGNER’s hits are over 15 million per week.

With more Top 10 songs than Journey and as many as Fleetwood Mac, FOREIGNER also features strongly in every category in Billboard’s “Greatest of All Time” listing. At times, the band’s weekly catalog sales have eclipsed those of Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Def Leppard, Van Halen, Aerosmith and most of their Classic Rock peers (Source: Nielsen SoundScan). FOREIGNER’s catalog sales were recently celebrated in Business Insider as hitting the Top 40 among the Best Selling Music Artists of All Time.

Founded in 1976, FOREIGNER’s debut album produced the hits “Feels Like The First Time,” “Cold As Ice” and “Long, Long Way From Home.” The album Double Vision followed, as did a string of hits including “Urgent,” “Juke Box Hero” and “Waiting For A Girl Like You.” Those songs helped give FOREIGNER’s next album, 4, its impressive run at #1 on the Billboard chart. At the zenith of 80’s sound, FOREIGNER’s fifth album, Agent Provocateur, gave the world the incredible #1 global hit,” I Want To Know What Love Is.” This musical milestone followed the record-breaking song “Waiting For A Girl Like You.”

FOREIGNER’s founder is Songwriters Hall of Fame member Mick Jones. A visionary maestro whose stylistic songwriting, indelible guitar hooks and multi-layered talents continue to escalate FOREIGNER’s influence and guide the band to new horizons.

Jones reformed the band after a 2002 hiatus and selected lead singer Kelly Hansen to help write an inspired new chapter in the history of FOREIGNER. One of rock’s greatest showmen, Hansen is among the most respected, consummate professionals in rock and roll. With a 40-year career that spans almost every area of music, from the role of lead vocalist to producing and engineering, Hansen has led FOREIGNER into the digital age while inspiring a whole new generation of fans.

State Fair of WV to Welcome Cody Johnson

State Fair Officials are excited to announce that Cody Johnson will perform on Thursday, August 11, at the 2022 State Fair of West Virginia! Tickets for this show will go on sale Wednesday, February 2, at 10 am.

“Cody Johnson is one of the best in the industry today,” State Fair CEO Kelly Collins stated. “We are excited to be bringing him to the stage as one of the first announcements for the 2022 concert series. Stay tuned for more announcements in the coming weeks!”

Tickets will only be available via ETIX at https://statefairofwv.com/events or by calling 1-800-514-ETIX (3849) Monday through Friday 9 am – 6 pm or Saturday 9 am to 5 pm. Tickets will not be sold at the State Fair Box Office until later in the spring.

The 10-day State Fair of West Virginia is celebrating 97 years of “Mountain Grown Fun”, on August 11-20, 2022. The State Fair of West Virginia, with a $13.8 million dollar economic impact on the state of West Virginia, is a 501 © 3 non-profit corporation committed to the traditions of agriculture, family entertainment, and education. For more information, please visit www.statefairofwv.com, or follow fair events on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Join the conversation using #sfwv2022!

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Cody Johnson

It might be daunting to launch a massive endeavor like a double album, but not for country superstar Cody Johnson, an artist MusicRow predicts “just might be the future of real country music.” For him, it was quite the opposite. “I literally felt like I was just window shopping.  Like I was a millionaire in a diamond shop. I was like, ‘I want that one.  I want that one, I want that one,’” he says. “And then when we added all those songs up, we had 18 that we knew we had to record.”

The brand new 18-track double album Human is stacked top to bottom with songs that Johnson considers ones that were originally dubbed too country for country. When the songwriters told Johnson and his team that the tunes they’d penned were being rejected by other Nashville artists, he said, “Bring those to me.”

“It’s so hard to watch the fight to get the cowboy back on the radio. Because that’s who I am and the lifestyle I live. And I can’t sacrifice my integrity for who I am. I’m just kind of just being myself,” Johnson says, having established a following of loyal fans by doing just that. Known as CoJo Nation, they regularly sell out shows across the country and have helped him earn multiple ACM and CMA Awards nominations, a Platinum-selling, Top 10 single  (“On My Way To You”), two RIAA Gold-certified tracks (“Nothin’ On You” and “With You I Am”) and more than two billion streams worldwide.

Human follows his first major-label release, Ain’t Nothin’ to It, which skyrocketed to No. 1 on both the Billboard Top Country Albums and All-Genre Digital Sales charts, also reaching Top 10 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart. It also made history as the third-highest pre-added album of all time in the country music genre on Apple Music at the time of release. Johnson re-recorded one of the project’s standout tracks, “Dear Rodeo,” as a powerful and emotional duet alongside country music icon, Reba McEntire. Described as “a beautiful piece of work” by MusicRow, the song inspired his autobiographical documentary Dear Rodeo: The Cody Johnson Story, which was recently shared in select theaters nationwide. With guest appearances by McEntire, Navy Seal Chris Kyle’s widow Taya (Kyle) and more, the film showcases Johnson’s real-life journey from the dusty rodeo arenas of rural Texas to some of the biggest musical stages in America, explaining how his years on the rodeo circuit fortuitously prepared him for his life as a country star.

When he began working on his second CoJo Music/Warner Music Nashville project, Johnson had enough undeniably country songs in his arsenal to make not one but two albums. Instead of trying to pare down the selection, he decided to record all of them and go old-school with a double album. The concept of two albums — each with a side A and a side B – added up to Human. And what that meant for Johnson is a listening experience that should feel like you’re at one of his unprecedented live shows. “What I did was put the songs together in sequential order as if it was a set list, and I was going to play you this album live. If there’s a theme to this project, it’s that the album is a set list.”

Johnson adds that he created this constellation of songs by choosing each one for its own reasons. “There are ones I wrote on, there are ones I didn’t write on, and there are ones that I wish I’d written.  There was too much good out there to let go of, so I just said, ‘We’re going to cut all of them.’”

Then when it came time to choose a name for the double album, produced with longtime collaborator Trent Willmon, Johnson landed on the title track “Human.” He did so, he says, because he spent more time at home in 2020 than he has since he started riding bulls as a teenager.

“I addressed things personally with this music. I addressed things in my marriage, and I said a lot of things that I had never said to my wife, we started over, and I made a vow to be a better husband, a better father, and a better leader. There were a lot of things that I was going through when I heard ‘Human.’  I was just like, ‘Man, that’s exactly what I’m doing. We ride into town, strike a match, and ride out. I show up for a show and act like I’ve got all this stuff figured out for 90 minutes,” he explains, “and then I get back to myself and I have just as many things to worry about as everybody else. So, we’re all human. We’re all going to be learning to be human until the day that we’re not human. I don’t think anybody figures it out, and when we do figure it out, maybe that’s when we go.”

The title also reflects how Johnson feels about releasing an album that he calls the most vulnerable one he’s ever recorded.  One of the songs he wrote on his own – “By Your Grace” – is the best example of just how vulnerable he was feeling throughout the pandemic. “I was having a really rough time with a lot of things I was dealing with. And my bus was parked at my house, so I went out there, got my guitar out, and I started playing. What came to me was, ‘I’m aware of everything that’s wrong with me but still you accept me either way. And I’ll live with the past I can’t get past and it still haunts me, so I’m asking for the courage to make a change.’ Now, I could have written that down in my journal or said that to a therapist. But as a song, it’s a reminder that God gives us grace, and how you repay the gift of grace is faith. It’s reminder that by His grace, I have been set free.”

Johnson hopes to see that song change people’s lives, even his own. “I need to remember that God gave me this talent. This ain’t Cody,” he says. “And I have an opportunity with my microphone to touch people.”

Another stand-out track off the ambitious album is the lead single, “‘Til You Can’t.” As Johnson has slowly but surely been getting back out on the road, the song elicits a crowd reaction that’s the boldest he’s ever seen. “After the year we’ve all been through, there’s a division in this country. But songs like this one have the ability to unite us all. We can all relate to the fact that life starts and it ends. All we’re given is time. Every day, every minute and every second is valuable. I always point to my guitar when I sing the line ‘cause a dream won’t chase you back.’ We are only here for a short time.”  The earnest song from Ben Stennis and Matt Rogers has an infectious tempo that starts quietly then builds along with Johnson’s advice: take the chances, chase the dreams, bait those lines, put that diamond on her hand, and take those calls from your mama as long as you can. Until you can’t. It’s the quintessential why-not-now song that calls Johnson’s loyal fans to action.

Not all of the 18 country songs on Human are brand new. Johnson has covers of classics from Vince Gill (“Son of a Ramblin’ Man”) and Conway Twitty (“I Don’t Know a Thing About Love”). Johnson also recruited country music icon Willie Nelson to join him for a new version of Nelson’s honest and witty “Sad Songs and Waltzes” from 1973.

After an hour of non-stop cowboy country music — backed by the welcome sounds of pedal steel guitar, fiddle, piano and his distinctive vocals — what Johnson hopes is that his fans will feel like they know him a little bit better. “I love the fact that when you listen to this album, you’re gonna hear all the facets that are me, personally and musically. Whether it’s something bluegrass, something a little bit rock, something gospel, or something a little bit more Texas.

“When people listen to Human, they are going to hear a lot more of me being me, because I am finally comfortable with myself and able to share that with my fans.”

Christmas at the Fair to Open December 23, 2021

LEWISBURG, WV (12/16/2021) (readMedia)– The State Fair of West Virginia will open Christmas at the Fair, its Christmas Light Drive-Thru experience Thursday, December 23, 2021. The show will run from 6 PM – 8 PM and is open to the public. “December 23rd will be the last day that Christmas at the Fair is open.,” State Fair CEO Kelly Collins stated. “We’ve enjoyed seeing families return each night and are looking forward to what next year has to hold.”

Christmas at the Fair is available to the public for donations only and begins at the livestock gate on 219 North just past the horse barns. Patrons are asked to follow traffic patterns, and turn off headlights when driving through the show. Mobile donations are accepted via Paypal at https://bit.ly/3oj0sMi.

“Our sponsors have been extremely supportive of this event,” Collins stated. “We could not have done this without them.” Major sponsors for this event include Greenbrier Physicians, People’s Bank, First Energy, Lost World Caverns, Aviagen Turkey, Gayle Mason CPA, Bank of Monroe, Monroe Insurance Group, Red Oaks Shopping Center, Aggie’s and Vest, Martin and Jones, Flanagan’s Barber Shop, Manic Espresso, Pocahontas Memorial Hospital, Jerry and Linda Clemons, Meadows and Wilson Dentistry, Caring Acres Farm, Long Farm, Lowe’s, David M. Moore Real Estate Law, and the Greenbrier Valley Airport.

View photos and videos from this year’s Christmas at the Fair here.For more information and a full calendar of events, please visit www.statefairofwv.com/christmas-at-the-fair. Follow the State Fair of West Virginia on Facebook @statefairofwv, Instagram @statefairofwestvirginia, TikTok @statefairofwv, and Twitter @SFWV. #ChristmasAtTheFair #SFWV