David O'Brien
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By Dave O’Brien
Record-Courier staff writer
Country music sensation Chris Cagle took the stage at the Portage County-Randolph Fair Thursday to the strains of Kid Rock’s “Cowboy” and “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC before launching into his own popular catalogue of country music songs in front of a screaming mass of fans in the packed grandstand.
Cagle, whose most recent release “What a Beautiful Day” is a certified-gold selling album, proved to be very popular, as concertgoers sang along with his songs and cheered as clouds of smoke announced his entrance.
Before the show, dozens of lucky fans got the chance to get a photo and an autograph with the star before his set.
The Record-Courier also sponsored a contest for three lucky individuals to have a chance to meet Cagle before his show. One of the winners, Katie O’Bryan of Garrettsville, brought her friend Marie Shipman, formerly of Garrettsville, to the meet-and-greet session with Cagle, where both got their pictures taken with the country music star.
Standing in line to get autographs and photos, the two were nervous but excited.
“He’s really hot,” Shipman observed as she watched the buff Cagle meet his adoring fans.
Asked what they might say to Cagle, Shipman said she would probably wish him luck for the show.
“He could be opening for bigger acts like Kenny Chesney, but I think he likes playing for these kind of crowds,” she said.
Roberta Mowen of Ravenna Township and Delores Durbin of Kent also won two tickets and VIP backstage passes to Cagle’s concert.
For
mer Nashville resident Angela McKenzie said she knows “everything” about Cagle. She recently moved to Cuyahoga Falls, and said she heard a lot of Cagle’s songs years ago before he became a big star when they worked together at a production company in Nashville.
“I used to do the copyrights for his music,” she said. “Chris is very nice.”
Scattered rainshowers early in the day held off for the concert. Fair Board President Charlie Breiding said that fairgoers were lucky to get to see the show under clear night skies.
Breiding called Cagle “the nicest artist” anyone could meet, and that he knows how to treat people well.
“He’s just like you and me,” said Breiding, who met Cagle in Las Vegas earlier this year to sign him up to come back to the fair, and said that the musician remembered him and the Portage County-Randolph Fair.
“Chris told me he still has a picture over his fireplace of himself kissing a cow three years ago at the fair,” Breiding said.
The concert was a popular draw at the fair this year, he said, while attendance is up over last year’s fair, especially on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Today is Senior Citizens and Veterans Day at the fair. Some of the events scheduled for today include draft horse shows at 9:30 a.m. and noon, the dog costume show at 11:30 a.m., the Senior Fair King and Queen Ceremony at 1:30 p.m. and musical acts South Bound Band on the Corner Stage at 7:30 p.m. and Head of the Class in Hamilton Arena at 8 p.m., sponsored by Pax23 News.