Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Don’t forget folks, a great week of country music concerts begins Friday at the York Fair.

Better yet, the shows are free with the cost of admission ($8 for adults; $7 for fairgrounds parking).

The concerts I’m talking about take place on the WGTY Radio Stage and will include current American Idol Trent Harmon, Season 10 runner-up Lauren Alaina and Broken Bow Records artist Jordan Rager, who appeared on Season 2 of The Voice.

Actually, there’s also a fourth singer with a singing show connection. Before she changed her stage name to Brooke Eden, she was performing under her real name, Brooke Helvie, and auditioned for Season 7 of American Idol.

Simon Cowell called her one of the most annoying people he’d ever met, but Brooke sailed through to the Hollywood round and has gotten the last laugh. She’s released well-received singles “Daddy’s Money” and, just last week, “Diamonds” under Red Bow Records.

Lauren Alaina is a frequent visitor to the York Fair. She performed the final concert on the Radio Stage last year; this year, she’s scheduled for one of the first, Friday night at 7:30 p.m. Lauren’s latest release was a self-titled EP that came out last October.

The biggest name on the Radio Stage lineup is new American Idol Trent Harmon. He’s released a country single called “There’s a Girl” since winning the show in April and is working on his debut album, meaning visitors to the fair will likely hear a sampling of that new music. Trent performs Saturday night.

Ditto for Jordan Rager in terms of new music, though he’s already released four singles through Broken Bow. That latest — “Now That I Know Your Name” — just came out. And it was preceded by “Southern Boy,” a duet Jordan performed with Broken Bow label mate Jason Aldean. Jordan performs Sunday night.

Here’s the complete Radio Stage schedule:

Friday, Sept. 9: Runaway June, 6:30 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 9: Lauren Alaina, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 10: Elly Cooke, 3 p.m,.
Saturday, Sept. 10: Trent Harmon, 6 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 11: Devon Nickoles, 3 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 11: Jordan Rager, 6:30 p.m.
Monday, Sept. 12: Thompson Square, 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Sept. 13: Craig Campbell, 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 14: Brooke Eden, 6:30 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 15: Jerrod Niemann, 6:30 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 16: High Valley, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 17: Kayla Kroh, 3 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 17: Brett Young, 6 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 18: Dylan Scott, 6 p.m.