Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Country music superstar Tim McGraw, along with LeAnn Rimes and Montgomery Gentry, will headline the 2009 Oregon Jamboree, July 31 to Aug. 2.
The Oregon Jamboree announced headliners and a handful of opening acts Tuesday morning.
McGraw will headline Friday night with Joey + Rory, playing in the second of four slots. The Jamboree still has two openings on Friday.
Rimes will headline Saturday’s five shows, with Heidi Newfield of Trick Pony opening. Three slots remain to be announced.
Montgomery Gentry will headline Sunday, closing out the 2009 Jamboree, with Kristy Lee Cook and Jake Owen opening the day’s four slots. The third slot remains to be filled.
Event Manager Peter LaPonte is ecstatic about landing McGraw for the 2009 lineup.
“Isn’t that amazing,” he said. “He’s a huge star. Adding Tim to the lineup is exciting.”
McGraw performed in Sweet Home in 1996. He gave Faith (Hill) a ’62 red Corvette as an engagement present in Sweet Home in 1996. LaPonte suggested that might be one of the reasons he has decided to return.
“An act like this doesn’t play any other small towns. Not a county fair can bring in an act like this.”
This should be an exciting act for Sweet Home and its more than 600 volunteers, who help put on the annual event, he said.
“We’re not done with the lineup, but pretty much the headliners are real solid,” LaPonte said. Montgomery Gentry is a returning act. Rimes is playing Sweet Home for the first time.
Ticket sales are “running about where we were last year,” LaPonte said.
McGraw has spent the last decade in the upper reaches of the entertainment world, with record-breaking tours, multi-platinum albums and an expanding presence in movies.
He re-leased his most recent album, “Let It Go,” in March 2007, debuting at number one on the pop and country album charts, including its first single, “Last Dollar.”
McGraw has charted 30 number-one singles and sold 40 million albums and singles worldwide. He has won three Grammy Awards, 11 Academy of Country Music Awards, 11 Country Music Association Awards, nine American Music Awards and three People’s Choice awards.
His 2007 “Soul2Soul Tour” with his wife, Faith Hill, made history as it grossed $142 million with 2 million fans attending 117 shows in 92 cities and two countries.
Rimes released her last album in October 2007, featuring the single “Nothin’ Better to Do.”
By age 13, she had her first national hit, launching a career that has sold more than 37 million records and netted her two Grammy Awards, including the first Best New Artist Award ever won by a country artist; an American Music Award; three Academy of Country Music honors; and 12 Billboard Awards.
She has scored numerous hit singles, including “One Way Ticket,” “I Need You,” “Nothin’ ‘Bout Love Makes Sense,” “Probably Wouldn’t Be This Way,” “Can’t Fight the Moonlight” and “How Do I Live.” She recorded a duet, “Till We Ain’t Strangers Anymore,” on Bon Jovi’s album “Lost Highway,” released last year.
After a decade on the national stage, Montgomery Gentry looks back on more than 20 charted singles, with anthems like “My Town” and “Hell, Yeah.” They’ve hit the top of the chart five times, including “If You Ever Stop Loving Me,” “Something to be Proud Of” and 2007’s “Lucky Man.”
The group reached number one again with the title track to June’s “Back When I Knew It All” and follow-up single “Roll with Me.”
Newfield and Trick Pony charted four top-20 singles before she left the band. Her 2008 album, “What Am I Waiting For,” reached Billboard Nashville’s Top 10 with charting singles “Johnny & June” and “Cry Cry (‘Til the Sun Shines).”
Cook is an Oregon native who finished seventh in last year’s American Idol competition with her performance of “Amazing Grace.”
Growing up in Selma, southwest of Grants Pass, music and horses were her two passions. At age 13, she heard Rimes’ “Blue” on the radio and started singing that all the time, she said.
She started performing all over the area and started getting little gigs here and there, opening for Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival and others.
She signed a record deal in 2001, but things didn’t come together for her. She continued honing her skills on the Texas circuit.
In August, she released her second album, “Why Wait,” charting the lead-off single, “15 Minutes of Shame,” at number 28.
Owen, who grew up in Florida, released his debut album, “Startin’ With Me,” in 2006, with singles “Yee Haw,” “Startin’ With Me” charting at number six and “Something About a Woman.” He is scheduled to release a new album, “Easy Does It,” on Feb. 24, featuring the single, “Don’t Think I Can’t Love You.”
Joey + Rory is a husband-and- wife duo, Rory Lee and Joey Martin Feek, who placed third in the 2008 “Can You Duet” competition on CMT. They released their debut album, “The Life of a Song,” in late October with the lead-off single, “Cheater, Cheater” reaching the Top 40 on the Billboard country music chart.
The Oregon Jamboree is owned and operated by the Sweet Home Economic Development Group, which holds the event to raise funds for local economic development projects. The annual three-day country music and camping festival is held the first weekend in August.
VIP tickets for this year’s festival are sold out. Three-day general admission is $125. Friday general admission is $95. Saturday and Sunday general admission is $70. Children’s three-day tickets are $30. Single-day children’s tickets are $20. Three-day camping is $75.
For further information or to volunteer for the Jamboree, call 367-8800.