Shasta District Fair announces headliner entertainment for 2009

Carlene Carter opens for Mark Chesnutt

By George L. Winship, Editor

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Singer and songwriter Carlene Carter, a prodigy child of Country music royalty, will open for classic Country singing treasure Mark Chesnutt in an 8 p.m. concert on Friday, June 19, during the 2009 edition of the Shasta District Fair.

The theme for this year’s fair is “A Red, White and Blue aFair!”

Dress circle tickets for the combined show are just $15 with fair admission and may be purchased now through the fair’s Web site at www.shastadistrictfair.com, announced Chris Workman, chief executive officer.

Grandstand seating is free with admission to the fair, which runs June 17-21 at the fairgrounds in Anderson, Workman said.

Also appearing at this year’s fair is the quintessential 1970s and 1980s California quartet “Pablo Cruise,” recently reformed with its original powerhouse trio of David Jenkins (guitars and vocals), Cory Lerios (keyboards and vocals), Steve Price (drums) and the addition of multi-talented instrumentalist George Gabriel (bass and vocals).

The group, which “should appeal to a lot of the Baby Boomers out there,” according to Workman, will perform an 8 p.m. concert in the fairgrounds’ grandstand arena on Thursday, June 18.

Dress circle tickets for that show are $10 per person with fair admission, also on sale through the fair’s Web site, Workman said.

Friday night’s headliner Mark Chesnutt, 45, is well known for his neo-traditionalist style. His influences include Merle Haggard, George Jones and Hank Williams.

Since the release of his debut album, “Doing My Country Thing,” in 1988, Chesnutt has gone on to record 13 studio albums and one live album, has had his songs included on three other compilation albums, released 41 singles and made 17 music videos. He has had 14 No. 1 hits, 23 top ten singles, four platinum albums, five gold records and maintains a steady presence with a hefty tour schedule year after year.

His latest single, “She Never Got Me Over You,” was released on Friday, March 13, and his most recent CD, “Rollin’ With the Flow,” was released in 2008 by Lofton Creek Records. The CD, named for his cover of a 1977 No. 1 hit by Charlie Rich, also features 11 new songs including the aforementioned single just released.

Born Sept. 6, 1963, in Beaumont, Texas, Chesnutt dropped out of high school after his sophomore year and began playing with his father’s band in clubs around southeast Texas. He later reconsidered and received his diploma.

“It’s the music and the fans that have kept me around this long,” said Chesnutt, who won the Country Music Academy’s Horizon award in 1989, an award given annually to the year’s most promising newcomer. CMA again recognized his prowess in 1993 when it bestowed Chesnutt with the prestigious Vocal Event of the Year award. In 2005, the French Country Music Awards honored him for the Best album of the Year.

What he enjoys most, however, is performing live on stage.

“I just make records because I want people to come see my show,” Chesnutt said. “Recording music for folks to just listen to is great, but I’ve got to be out there on stage making it.”

Carter, 53, is the daughter of June Carter Cash and honky-tonk king Carl Smith. She is also the stepdaughter of Country legend Johnny Cash, who raised her since she turned 2 after her mother divorced Smith and married Cash.

Pregnant and unmarried at 15, Carlene Carter left the Cash home to launch her own career as a rock signer in the 1970s before finding her Country roots in the 1980s. She had two children and went through three husbands by age 22. In February 2003 she lost her long-time companion, musician and producer Howie Epstein, who played bass with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Later that same year, she also lost her mother, stepfather and younger stepsister Rosey Carter Adams. After several years of mourning, she finally found her soul mate when she married actor Joseph Breen in February of 2006.

It is Breen, she said, who inspired her to write her most introspective album, “Stronger,” released on March 4, 2008, by Yep Roc Records. It is the CD that has launched her latest comeback.

“Almost everything on this record I wrote since I’ve been with my husband,” Carter writes in her record label’s official biography. “The whole record was inspired, in a lot of ways, by Joe. He really encouraged me to start writing again.”

The song that best sums the enormity of the losses she suffered in 2003 is the title track, “Stronger.” The lyrics eulogize Carter’s feelings for Rosey.

“It’s the story about how I felt after Rosey died,” Carter said. “It actually came because of the combination of all of those losses that year. That song really helped me to heal a whole lot. When I started writing it, I was able to put into words how I felt. The chorus about survival is because I am still here.”

Noted Nashville music journalist and critic Chet Flippo summed up Carter’s latest musical offering when he wrote recently, “This is why you should care about Carlene Carter. She puts her whole life into her music in a way few artists dare or accomplish. ‘Stronger’ is a triumphant album.”