State Fair officials have announced that country music super-group Alabama is returning to the 92nd Annual State Fair of West Virginia on Saturday, Aug. 13, at 8 p.m.
Tickets for the show will go on sale Friday, Jan. 22, at 10 a.m.
“Alabama put on an amazing show for a record crowd at the 2015 State Fair of West Virginia,” State Fair CEO Kelly Collins stated. “Tickets sold out quickly for last year’s show, so I recommend getting your tickets early this year. You don’t want to miss this show twice!”
Ticket prices and details on how to order can be found at www.statefairofwv.com. Tickets will only be available via Etix at www.statefairofwv.com or by calling 1-800-514-ETIX (3849) Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. or Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets will not be sold at the State Fair Box Office until later in the spring.
It’s been 40 years since a trio of young cousins left Fort Payne, AL, to spend the summer playing in a Myrtle Beach, SC bar called The Bowery. It took Randy Owen, Teddy Gentry and Jeff Cook six long years of tip jars and word of mouth to earn the major label deal they’d been dreaming of, but then seemingly no time at all to change the face of country music.
Alabama is the band that changed everything. They have had 43 #1 singles including 21 #1 singles in a row, a record that will probably never be equaled in any genre. They brought youthful energy, sex appeal and a rocking edge that broadened country’s audience and opened the door to self-contained bands from then on, and they undertook a journey that led, 73 million albums later, to the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Of the early days and their humble beginnings, Jeff Cook says, “I don’t think we thought too far ahead. We were more concerned with paying our bills at the end of the week playing music.”
The Bowery was a chance to get established outside their home turf, where they’d played a nearby theme park, opening for national acts like Bobby Bare.
The fact that some of the heirs of that legacy – Eli Young Band, Rascal Flatts and Florida Georgia Line – were among the stars paying tribute on Alabama & Friends, their most recent release, is part of their legacy as surely as the awards and plaudits they’ve earned through the years. And those, of course, have been legion. They include more than 150 major industry nods, including two Grammys, the Minnie Pearl Humanitarian award, Entertainer of the Year awards three times from the CMA and five times from the ACM, as well as the latter’s Artist of the Decade award. They earned 21 Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum albums and were named the RIAA’s Country Group of the Century.
But awards are only a part of a legacy that finds its most important home in the hearts of listeners everywhere. Some of those are superstars in other genres, as Randy Owen found out not long ago.
“I was part of a benefit concert at the Ryman,” he says, “and I look over there’s Jon Bon Jovi. He walked over and said hello and it turns out he likes our music.”
Many more, of course, are everyday country fans.
“A lot of fans will start a conversation with, ‘I don’t want to bother you,’” says Cook, “but what they don’t understand is that everything that’s happened to us, every one of those awards, happened because we’ve been accepted and supported by our fans.”
Not long ago, Gentry was witness to a scene that shows that their legacy of song remains as fresh as it was when that streak in the ‘80s kicked it all off.
“I was in Nashville,” he says, “walking by this club full of young people – I’m talking 18 or 20. The band started playing ‘Dixieland Delight’ and everybody in the place started singing and sang all the way through. I had to smile at the longevity of the songs. Maybe some of those kids didn’t even know who Alabama was, but they knew the music, and so I think that’s a tribute to the fact that we spent a career putting out good songs that stand the test of time.”
But the boys from Fort Payne are not content to rest on past glories. As 2014 neared an end, they were concluding a strong tour and celebrating the release of their gospel album, “Angels Among Us: Hymns & Gospel Favorites.” The band is looking forward to continuing touring in 2016 after the release of their first studio album of new material in 14 years, “Southern Drawl.” Alabama continues to “Roll On.”
The 2016 State Fair themed “Capture Your Memories,” is a 10-day fair scheduled Aug. 12-21. The State Fair of West Virginia, with a $13.8 million economic impact on the state of West Virginia, is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation committed to the traditions of agriculture, family entertainment, and education. For more information, visit www.statefairofwv.com, or follow fair events on Facebook and Twitter.
