Gate Admission $4 After 4 p.m.
SPECIAL EVENTS
The Voice’s Kaleigh Glanton
Tuesday, Sept. 9
6 p.m., Bretz & Young Injury Lawyer’s Arena
Kansan Kaleigh Glanton grew up watching her father play classical guitar and at merely four years old, expressed interest in playing the guitar, too. Five years ago, at the age of 15, Kaleigh also discovered her voice. It was then that her music shifted from complex melodic and polyphonic textile on guitar to using vocal tonality and rhythm to chronicle life.
Glanton, a Maize High School graduate, experience a 4-chair turn around on the 2014 season NBC’s “The Voice,” but chose to compete on Team Blake. The very next day her song reached No. 15 on the iTunes rock chart.
Sheep Dog Demonstration
Tuesday, Sept. 9
11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., Bison Arena
Head to the Bison Arena on the Kansas State Fairgrounds to see a real-life Lassie dog in action: a border collie. The dog’s trainer/handler Dave Arnold, from Ashland, Kan., is bringing the demonstration to the Fair to show fairgoers the ins and outs of sheep dogs and their work.
For over 25 years, Arnold has been involved in sheep dog training and handling. The trainer, he says, uses the dogs’ natural instinct to train them to move sheep where they need to go.
Mutton Bustin Results
The Kansas State Fair provides all kinds of entertainment, sure for a Mutton Bustin’ good time! Forty-five little riders, ages three to six years old, performed and reenacted the rodeo ritual of bull riding in miniature form on wooly, white sheep to a full-capacity crowd. Contestants’ judging criteria include time, distance and style during the ride and dismount.
First Place: Benjamin Swingle – Zenda, KS
Second Place: Katelyn Landwehr – Goddard, KS
Third Place: Tristen Cox – Mt. Hope Ks
Fourth Place: Bradon Crain – Wichita, KS
Fifth Place: Easton Colborn – Garden City, KS
Sixth Place: Tyler Martisko – Inman, KS
Sheepmanship Award – Katelyn Landwehr –Goddard, KS
MIDWAY
Ride of the Day: Cycle Jump
Join the coolest motorcycle gang around when you jump on this midway classic. Hop on your favorite bike and you’re sure to have a guaranteed good time.
GRANDSTAND ENTERTAINMENT
Country Gold hits the U.S. Cellular Grandstand
Tuesday, Sept. 9
7:30 p.m., U.S. Cellular Grandstand
Leroy Van Dyke
Leroy Van Dyke is known as an entertainer, recording artist, radio and television star, auctioneer and veteran of the Nevada circuit. Music industry experts even named Leroy Van Dyke as the Country Music Entertainer of the Decade in the 1960s.
After serving as a special agent, U.S. Army Counter-Intelligence Corps, in Korea, Van Dyke was catapulted into show business while working as a fieldsman in the purebred livestock advertising department. During his work with the Cornbelt Farm Dailies, a chain of livestock newspapers, Van Dyke’s self-penned “Auctioneer” recording went a million-plus just weeks after its release.
He again had a multi-million seller with “Walk On By,” a record that stayed in the charts an incredible 42 weeks, nineteen in the No. 1 position. In 1961, Van Dyke moved to Nashville, Tenn. and in 1962, became a regular member of the Grand Ole Opry. He even had the starring role in the 1967 movie “What Am I Bid?”
Van Dyke is considered by industry moguls and by his peers to be the entertainer who put professionalism in country music. He was the first to blaze a trail and take a staged, produced, choreographed, self-contained country music show to “The Strip” in Las Vegas. He was the first to take country music to Bourbon Street in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter. He was the only country music performer ever to open a show for Marilyn Monroe.
Van Dyke is a 2001 inductee into the North American Country Music Association, International, Hall of Fame, and is a member of the Missouri Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2007, he was the recipient of the Missouri Country Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2011, Leroy was inducted into the International Entertainment Buyers Association’s Hall of Fame.
For more information on Leroy Van Dyke, visit www.leroyvandyke.com.
Jimmy Fortune of the Statler Brothers
Jimmy Fortune first joined the Statler Brothers as a temporary replacement for Lew Dewitt, after Dewitt heard him singing at a ski resort. Due to debilitating effects of Chron’s Disease, Dewitt was unable to return to the stage with the Statlers, and Jimmy was hired as a permanent replacement in August of 1982. He performed with them for 21 years.
Fortune quickly lived up to his name. He wrote the group’s second number one hit, “Elizabeth,” on its 1982 album Today, and followed that with two more No. 1 hits: “My Only Love” (from 1984’s Atlanta Blue) and Too Much On My Heart” (from 1985’s Pardners in Rhyme). Fortune also wrote the top-ten hit “Forever” (from 1986’s Four for the Show) and co-wrote the top-ten hit “More Than a Name on a Wall” (From 1988’s The Greatest Hits).
Fortune and the Statler Brothers were inducted into the GMA (Gospel Music Association) Hall of Fame on October 29, 2007, and inducted into the CMA (Country Music Association) Hall of Fame on June 29, 2008.
After the Statler Brothers retired on Oct. 26, 2002, Fortune seized the opportunity to launch a solo career. His first solo CD, When One Door Closes, was released August 2003 on Audium/Koch. He released a gospel album, I Believe, in June 2005; a Christmas CD, Feels Like Christmas, in 2006; a live concert DVD in 2008 and another country CD, Windows, in 2009. Jimmy is currently living in Nashville, writing for Melrose Entertainment and touring extensively.
To learn more about Jimmy Fortune, visit www.jimmyfortune.com.
T.G. Sheppard
Born in Humboldt, Tenn., the young man known as Bill Browder set sail for Memphis at the age of 15 to launch his fledgling career in music in earnest. Using the stage name, Brian Stacy, he released his first record, “High School Days,” which caused enough interest on the pop charts of the mid-60s to win him spots as an opening artist for some of the biggest names of the day—the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, and the Animals.
In 1974 Sheppard was signed to Motown Records on its Melodyland label and his career began to seriously heat up. Sheppard’s recording of the single “Devil In the Bottle” struck a chord of success becoming his first No. 1 hit. He followed it by co-writing another No. 1 hit, “Trying To Beat The Morning Home.”
By the time the ink was dry on a major deal with Warner Brothers Records, T.G. had been named “Best New Male Artist” by Cashbox. He amassed ten consecutive No. 1 records—including songs that are now considered T.G. Sheppard signature songs: “Last Cheater’s Waltz,” “Only One You,” “Party Time,” “Do You Wanna Go To Heaven,” “I Feel Like Loving You Again,” “I Loved ‘Em Every One,” “Finally,” “War Is Hell On The Homefront Too,” and “Faking Love.” “Finally” and “I Loved ‘Em Every One” both made major impact on the Pop Top 40 Charts. “Make My Day,” a duet with Clint Eastwood featured in the movie, “Sudden Impact,” also gained pop chart recognition.
By the mid-80s Sheppard moved to Columbia Records where four album projects and more hits followed on a second wave of success: No. 1 singles “Fooled Around And Fell In Love,” “One For The Money,” and “Strong Heart,” helped him solidify his place in country music.
To learn more about T.G. Sheppard, please visit www.tgsheppard.com.
Eddy Raven
Eddy Raven’s music is rich in lyrical imagery and strong in artistic roots. He has been writing and playing a mixture of rock, country, Cajun and blues since he was a Louisiana teenager. Now he can proudly boast 30 ASCAP songwriting awards, seven No. 1 hits, 14 Top 10s and 22 albums.
Raven gained a huge amount of all-around knowledge working at Lafayette’s La Louisianne label selling records and working in the facility’s sound studios. It was there that Raven first worked with the great regional stars such as Professor Longhair, Dr. John, Dale and Grace (“I’m Leaving It All Up To You”) and John Fred and the Playboy Band. Bobby Charles (“Walking To New Orleans” and “See You Later Alligator”) lived only a few miles away. He cut one of Raven’s songs and became something of a songwriter mentor to the young writer/artist.
La Louisianne soon added Raven to its roster and released his “That Cajun Country Sound.” This release led Opry star Jimmy C. Newman to invite Raven to Nashville. Acuff-Rose Publishing signed the young man as a staff writer and he went back to Louisiana determined to write a hit song. He met that goal by writing “Country Green” and “Touch The Morning” for Don Gibson, and “Good Morning Country Rain” for Jeannie C. Riley.
With the encouragement of Acuff-Rose’s Don Gant, Raven made the move to Nashville to pursue his music career full-time. Once in Nashville, Raven continued writing songs for other artists such as Roy Orbison, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Tanya Tucker, Chris LeDoux, Lorrie Morgan, Gene Watson, Johnny Cash, Lynn Anderson, Connie Smith, Faron Young, Moe Bandy, Brenda Lee and many many more. He recently co-wrote the song “Cabo San Lucas” with Toby Keith that Keith recorded.
When Raven signed with Elektra Records, he cut the breakthrough song, “I Should’ve Called.” Just to prove the success was no fluke, Raven followed it with “Who Do You Know in California,” which established him as a stylist to note. He started his own publishing company and kept writing hit songs for others as well as for himself. In 1982 his “Thank God For Kids” became a monumental hit for the Oak Ridge Boys.
The following year, after signing with RCA, Raven wrote and co-produced his first No. 1 hit, “I Got Mexico.” More No.1 songs followed such as “Bayou Boys,” “Shine, Shine, Shine,” “I’m Gonna Get You,” “Joe Knows How To Live,” “Til You Cry,” and “In A Letter To You.”
To learn more about Eddy Raven, please visit www.eddyraven.com.