RIVERFEST
July 17 - 19
Diversity and something for everyone best describe the 2009 talent line up for WinnaVegas Casino's Riverfest.
The family friendly event includes camping and RV sites, food vendors, arts and crafts and much more. A temporary state-of-the-art outdoor amphitheater and stage – featuring the latest in high quality sound and lighting – will be constructed just north of the casino.
"Our goal is have a permanent structure hopefully completed and ready for the next Riverfest in 2010," says WinnaVegas Casino market research analyst Deana Whistler.
Creedence Clearwater Revisited: Friday, July 17
Opening Act: Foghat and Georgia Satellites
This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of Creedence Clearwater Revisited, the band Doug Clifford and Stu Cook formed to allow them a chance to play the songs they had a hand in creating almost four decades ago. Revisited's career has lasted nearly three times as long as the original Creedence Clearwater Revival, though that legendary group's roots actually stretch back to the late 1950s when John Fogarty, Cook and Clifford were in high school. Creedence Clearwater stood out from San Francisco's psychedelic music scene with blue-collar rawness. Between 1968 and 1972, the band released an extraordinary 16 Top 40 singles, including such classics "Bad Moon Rising," "Proud Mary" and "Who'll Stop the Rain." Cook and Clifford have enlisted a trio of musicians to help recreate the band's sound, including former People lead singer (and Twin Peaks actor) John Tristao on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, guitar legend Tal Morris on lead, and multi-instrumentalist Steve Gunner.
Clay Walker & Mark Chesnutt: Saturday, July 18
Opening Act: Holly Williams
Clay Walker:
Clay Walker fell in love with country music at an early age, when his father gave him a guitar when he was only nine years old. After he graduated from high school, Walker pursued a musical career full-time, playing concerts across the South, the Midwest and Canada. For more than three years, he toured and went to school, taking courses about the music business. Released in 1993, his first two singles -- "What's It To You" and "Live Until I Die" -- reached No. 1, and he emerged as a popular live performer, especially in Texas. By the end of 1998, he'd notched a dozen Top 5 hits and his first four studio albums were certified platinum. Within two years, his Greatest Hits and the follow-up album Live, Laugh, Love were certified gold.
Mark Chesnutt:
As a torchbearer for traditional country music, Chesnutt arrived at Nashville's commercial heyday in the early 1990s. His first single, 1990's "Too Cold at Home" marked a string of 12 Top 10 hits for MCA Nashville. (Other hits include "Brother Jukebox" and "I'll Think of Something.") His early success was rewarded with the CMA Horizon Award in 1993. When he shifted to the revived imprint Decca in 1994, Chesnutt landed several more hits, including "It's a Little Too Late" and the Aerosmith remake "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." Chesnutt released the album Savin' The Honky Tonk in 2004 on the independent label Vivaton, which closed shortly after the album was released. He returned in 2006 with Heard It in a Love Song.
Terri Clark & Randy Travis: Sunday, July 19
Opening Act: Andy Griggs & Rhett Akins
Opening for Randy Travis is Terri Clark. She has one of the most unique voices in country music, and she's also an accomplished guitar player, a rarity in country music. Her big hits include "Better Things to Do," "When Boy Meets Girl," and a remake of Linda Ronstadt's "Poor Poor Pitiful Me".
In 1985, Randy Travis released the single "On the Other Hand," which only made it to No. 67 on the Billboard country singles chart. Travis' second single, "1982," was a Top 10 hit that kicked his career into high gear. The label then re-released "On the Other Hand" in 1986, and the song went to No. 1. Travis followed it up with chart topping hits "Diggin' Up Bones" and "Forever and Ever, Amen," which won the Country Music Association's single of the year award in 1987. Travis won the CMA's prestigious Horizon Award in 1986, won album of the year honors in 1987 for Always and Forever and took home male vocalist of the year trophies in 1987 and 1988. George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, the Grand Ole Opry cast and the rest of country's classic stylists voiced their support for the plainspoken young man from North Carolina -- they had found someone to "carry the torch" into the future.
Travis' major label debut album, Storms of Life, was released in 1986 and went on to sell more than 4 million copies. Always and Forever, his second collection, was No. 1 for 10 solid months and won a Grammy Award. Old 8x10, his third set, also won a Grammy. To be sure, the first boom in the "new country" movement had sounded. In 1986, Travis was invited to join the Grand Ole Opry. By the time he turned 30 in 1989, he'd sold more than 13 million records, paving the way for a new generation of country stars like Garth Brooks, Clint Black and Travis Tritt.
Travis and Hatcher married in 1991, and, in 1992, Travis became the first country artist to release two albums simultaneously. Both volumes of his Greatest Hits became sales blockbusters. Later that year, he and Alan Jackson collaborated on Jackson's No. 1 smash "She's Got the Rhythm (And I Got the Blues)." Travis then scored back-to-back No. 1 hits of his own, "If I Didn't Have You" and "Look Heart, No Hands." In 1994, Travis launched his film career with a variety of roles. He also has been a guest star on several top-rated TV dramas, including Touched by an Angel and Matlock. "Acting was a way for me to learn something new," Travis explains. "Learning keeps you young."
In 1997, Travis left Warner Bros. Records and signed with new label DreamWorks Nashville. His first album for the label, 1998's You and You Alone, put Travis back in the spotlight with Top 5 singles "Out of My Bones," and "Spirit of a Boy, Wisdom of a Man," and the Top 10 single "The Hole." Travis managed to record the album while filming roles in Francis Ford Coppola's big-screen treatment of John Grisham's The Rainmaker and the Patrick Swayze feature Black Dog. Travis released a second DreamWorks album, A Man Ain't Made of Stone in 1999.
In 2000, he followed with Inspirational Journey, a contemporary Gospel album on Warner Bros. Travis released a second Christian-themed album, Rise and Shine, in 2002. Its first single, "Three Wooden Crosses," unexpectedly reached No. 1 at country radio and won the CMA song of the year in 2003. The album won a Grammy in 2004. After this surprising career boost, he continued to release inspirational albums, including Worship & Faith (2003), Passing Through (2004) and Glory Train (2005).