Country Music News

TODAY IN COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY

(June 17)

Red Foley born (1910) in Berea, Ky.

Hank Snow's "I Don't Hurt Anymore" goes to No. 1, where it stayed for a total of 20 weeks (1954)

Jerry Lee Lewis's first No. 1 single, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," charted (1957)

OF MUSIC AND MORE

FAN FAIR 2002

Nashville is returning to normal after a heady week of Fan Fair events. From Tuesday to Sunday the Adelphia Coliseum, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the Ryman and other venues far and wide rocked with music from gospel to the latest country pop.

One of the larger shows came Thursday night at the Adelphia where the RCA Label Group show ran for four hours.

Brooks and Dunn launched the show with "Only in America" accompanied by red, white and blue streamers tossed into the audience. They followed with a medley of their latest hits.

The duo was followed by Kenny Chesney, Diamond Rio and Martina McBride.

George Jones, who's pushing 70, played a six-song set of country classics winding up with "I Don't Need No Rocking Chair."

Alan Jackson dipped into his catalog of classics and delivered hits from his current bestseller, "Drive." Right after "Don't Rock the Jukebox," he revived the Eagles' "Seven Bridges Road," noting that he'd been playing it live for the last 20 years. Wisely, he followed with "Pop a Top" and his latest No. 1 hit, "Drive (For Daddy Gene)." At the end of his 12-song set, Jackson said nothing to introduce "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)," but he didn't need to. Country fans have heard it countless times by now, and it provided a somber end to a thrilling night of music.

Another sell-out show was the WEA/EMI show Saturday night that achieved the kind of intimacy between artists and fans that was common in the more compact Fan Fairs of yesteryear. This closeness was most obvious in the fans' congenial attentiveness to everything going on onstage and in the performers' spontaneous and apparently heartfelt tributes to these folks who ultimately pay their bills

Trace Adkins, Keith Urban, Tracy Lawrence and Jo Dee Messina gave dynamic and well-received performances, but it was Neal McCoy who reduced the mammoth venue to the size of his backyard and the crowd of thousands to his personal fan club. Smarting from having been exiled to a smaller Fan Fair stage last year, McCoy demonstrated beyond argument that he's a real stadium act.

Appearing fourth in the nine-act lineup, McCoy had the crowd up and clapping -- via "Doo Wah Diddy Diddy" -- before he reached the front of the stage. It got better and more raucous when he segued into "Wink" and lined up with two of his guitarists to form what he called "The Neal McCoy Dancers."

Pacing the show was comedian Bill Engvall, who has returned to Warner Bros. after a sojourn at BNA. His next album, he said, is called "Cheap Drunk: An Autobiography."

John Michael Montgomery, who closed the show, introduced two songs from his upcoming album, "Country Thing," a rollicking catalog of rural-life identifiers, and the yearning and romantic "'Til Nothing Comes Between Us." Of all the acts, his was the only one in which the band held back to give primacy to the lyrics. Montgomery frequently warbled off-key in his pilgrimage through such hits as "Life's a Dance," "Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)" and "The Little Girl." But to the host of faithful, it just didn't matter.

HANK JR. TAPPED FOR ABC'S FOURTH

Toby Keith won't be on ABC's Fourth of July special, but Hank Williams Jr. will. He'll open "In Search of America: A July 4th Celebration" with "America Will Survive," the song he did last fall on CMT's Country Freedom Concert. Hank Jr. joins a cast that includes Sheryl Crow, Los Lobos, Kirk Franklin, Gillian Welch and India.Arie. Hosted by news anchor Peter Jennings, the show will originate from Livingston, Mont. Hank Jr. also will perform "Outdoor Loving Man."