Rising Nashville stars to headline grandstand music events at Allamakee County Fair

The grandstand entertainment at the Allamakee County Fair continues to set the stage for up and coming country music acts on stage, as the 159th Allamakee County Fair will feature a pair of rising Nashville stars during its July 18-22 running this year.
Ira Dean, former bass player and vocalist for the country music group "Trick Pony" now making his own way, and country music newcomer Matt Stilwell will headline this year's grandstand musical entertainment Friday, July 20. Both continue a trend of up-and-coming country music acts to hit the local fair stage that first got its start last year with Frankie Ballard's performance.

ADVANCE TICKET SALES NOW ONLINE
A new feature for this year's Allamakee County Fair grandstand attractions is the ability to purchase tickets to any and all events online. The fair's webpage, www.allamakeecountyfair.org, has a "Buy Tickets Now" button link that will take online purchasers through a check-out process using Google Checkout® or PayPal®. Tickets for the grandstand events can be purchased for the entire five days of the fair, or for just a single event. Those tickets can either be mailed to the purchaser or picked up at the "will call" window at the grandstand.
That online purchase possibility is an added convenience feature for this year. Advance tickets for grandstand events can also be purchased in Waukon at the Allamakee County ISU Extension and Outreach office, Waukon State Bank, Farmers & Merchants Savings Bank, Fidelity Bank, Village Farm & Home and Clark Tire Center.

IRA DEAN
As a member of "Trick Pony," Dean co-wrote some of the group's biggest hits, including "Pour Me" and the Grammy-nominated "Just What I Do". With Dean as a song writer and bass player, "Trick Pony" won both the American Music Awards’ “Top New Artist” and the Country Music Association’s “Artist of the Year” awards in 2001.
Since leaving the group in 2008 and beginning his solo career, Dean has co-written such hits as "One in Every Crowd" released by Montgomery Gentry, also having co-written the Gary Allan release "Feeling Like That". His self-titled solo debut CD includes such songs as "Something 'Bout a Sunday" and "Beer or Gasoline", both of which can be heard at his website, www.iradean.com.

MATT STILWELL
Matt Stilwell broke into the country music scene with his single “Shine” that debuted at #25 on the iTunes® country chart, with its accompanying music video reaching #5 on CMT Pure. "Shine" also broke onto Billboard’s Country charts at #52, with another of his trademark songs, “Sweet Sun Angel”, making its mark at #58. His current single “Ignition” is the lead single on his newest album being polished for release. Samples of his music can be found on his website at www.mattstilwell.net.
Known to show his audience a good time, Stilwell is planning his fourth annual Stilwell Shinefest, which is held each year at the Fontana Village Resort in the mountains of North Carolina. Stilwell is promoted by Average Joe’s Entertainment, which is also home to such country music acts as Montgomery Gentry and Josh Gracin.

MORE GRANDSTAND
In addition to nationally-known rising stars, local competitors will also get the opportunity to perform in front of fair-goers again this year in each of the other four grandstand events planned for this year's fair. Local truck and tractor enthusiasts will put the power of their machines on display in the Wednesday, July 18 Truck and Tractor Pull, with the Saturday, July 21 Motokazie and Sunday, July 22 Tough Truck Contest also providing locals a chance to thrill the crowd in competition on two and four wheels.
New to the grandstand entertainment line-up this year is Tuff-N-Nuff Miniature Rodeo Association sanctioned competition Thursday, July 19. The event will feature the thrills and spills of bull riding competition in both the unique, small-but-mighty format provided by miniature bulls in addition to the thunderous antics of full-size bulls also in action, as well as barrel racing and wild pony racing for kids 12 and under.

OTHER ATTRACTIONS
The newly-formatted Fair Queen Coronation/Youth Showcase will kick off this year's fair Tuesday evening, July 17 in the fairgrounds pavilion building. Superior Carnival from right here in Iowa will return to the midway again this year, featuring a new ride, the "Hurricane", one of only two such rides in the entire state of Iowa.
Additional information about this year's fair will be published in a future edition of The Standard as fair time approaches or can be found at the fair's website, www.allamakeecountyfair.org.