Curtis C Wynne/News-Sun
LOVINGTON — The eagerly awaited 2023 Lea County Fair and Rodeo concert lineup became final Thursday with county commissioners’ unanimous approval of contracts.
Citing a total cost of $907,500 for artists and fees, the Lea County Fair and Rodeo Board recommended concerts to begin Aug. 4 with Hispanic Heritage Celebration night and continue the following Tuesday through Saturday, Aug. 8-12. Fair board Chairman Kris Allen presented the board’s recommendations.
“We’ve been looking forward to this,” County Commission Chairman Dean Jackson said. “This is a good line up.”
An impressed Commissioner Jonathan Sena, frequently expressing interest in the Wednesday family night concert, asked Allen, “How did you get For King and Country?”
“I made a phone call,” Allen responded simply with a smile.
Bands for fair week will be:
• Los Invasores de Nuevo Leon and Los Rieleros del Norte
• Wade Bowen
• For King and Country
• The Frontmen,
• Tracy Lawrence
• Alabama
Set to begin the concert series on Hispanic Heritage Night are two cross-border bands, Los Invasores de Nuevo Leon and Los Rieleros del Norte.
Los Invasores de Nuevo León are a Mexican Norteño set founded in 1977. According to Wikipedia, the group became popular on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border during the 1980s and 1990s.
Many of their songs are still played on radio to this day, such as Laurita Garza, Eslabón por Eslabón, Ni Dada La Quiero, Amor a la Ligera, Ni que Tuvieras tanta Suerte, Playa Sola, Aguanta Corazón, Mi Casa Nueva and A Mí que Me Quedo.
Los Rieleros Del Norte (“The Railers of the North”) are a Mexican three-time Grammy-nominated Regional Mexican band from Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Mexico. Based in El Paso, they specialize in the Norteño-Sax genre.
The concert on Tuesday, Aug. 8, will feature Wade Bowen, a Texas Country/Red Dirt singer from Waco, Texas. Bowen released his first album in 2002, Try Not To Listen, which became a regional hit in Texas. He released his first live album in 2003, recorded live at The Blue Light in Lubbock, followed by studio albums Lost Hotel in 2006 and If We Ever Make It Home in 2008.
During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, Bowen started a web series of live shows called Wade’s World, where he hosted other prominent Texas musicians to play and tell stories about their songs every Friday night. Guests included Bruce Robison, Cody Canada, Jack Ingram, and others.
For King and Country, the Family Night concert on fair and rodeo Wednesday, features two brothers, Joel and Luke Smallborne, who immigrated to the United States from Australia as children, settling in the Nashville area.
The band was declared by Billboard as one of the “New Artists to Watch” for 2012. American Songwriter described them as “Australia’s answer to Coldplay”. In 2014, they released their second studio album, Run Wild. Live Free. Love Strong, which won a Grammy award.
In 2018, they released Burn the Ships, which achieved gold status. The album featured four singles, including “God Only Knows”, which achieved platinum status, and “Joy” and “Burn the Ships”, which reached gold status. In 2020, they released a full-length Christmas album, A Drummer Boy Christmas. In 2022, they released their fifth studio album, What Are We Waiting For?
The band has collaborated with many artists on their work, including Dolly Parton, Timbaland, Tori Kelly, Lecrae, Needtobreathe, and others, according to Wikipedia.
The concert for Thursday, Aug. 10, will feature The Frontmen, a supergroup of country music singers. The group consists of Restless Heart member Larry Stewart, as well as former Lonestar member Richie McDonald and former Little Texas member Tim Rushlow.
On Friday, Aug. 11, fair goers will be treated to country music singer, songwriter and record producer Tracy Lawrence. Recording for Atlantic Records Nashville as early as 1991, making his debut late that year with the album Sticks and Stones, Lawrence later recorded for Warner Bros. Records, DreamWorks Records, Mercury Records Nashville, and his own labels, Rocky Comfort Records and Lawrence Music Group.
Lawrence has released a total of 14 studio albums. His most commercially successful albums are Alibis (1993) and Time Marches On (1996), both certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). He has charted more than 40 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including eight songs that reached the number one position.
The fair’s concert lineup will close with the band Alabama on Saturday, Aug. 12.
Alabama’s biggest success came in the 1980s, when the band had 27 number one hits, seven multi-platinum albums and received numerous awards. Alabama’s first single on RCA Records, “Tennessee River”, began a streak of 21 number one singles, including “Love in the First Degree” (1981), “Mountain Music” (1982), “Dixieland Delight” (1983), “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band)” (1984) and “Song of the South” (1988).
Although the band disbanded in 2004 following a farewell tour and two albums of inspirational music, Alabama reunited in 2010 and continued to record and tour worldwide.
The band’s blend of traditional country music and Southern rock combined with elements of bluegrass, folk and pop music gave it a crossover appeal that helped lead to their success, according to Wikipedia
Alabama has more than 41 number one country records on the Billboard charts to their credit and have sold more than 75 million records, making them the most successful band in country music history. AllMusic credited the band with popularizing the idea of a country band and wrote that “It’s unlikely that any other country group will be able to surpass the success of Alabama.”
Alabama was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2019 and was awarded with the first ever Life Time Achievement Award from the institution.
