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Lee Brice dropping by on his way to big things

Singer who earned two nods at the ACM awards will perform at the fair

Lee Brice's "Love Like Crazy" now holds the record for the most weeks spent on the Billboard country chart. After 55 weeks, the single last year sailed past the previous record holder, Eddy Arnold's "Bouquet of Roses," which had stayed on the charts for 54 weeks after its 1948 release.

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By Andrew McGinn, Staff Writer 3:19 PM Thursday, July 21, 2011

SPRINGFIELD — The names and dates have passed into local legend.

Reba, 1984; Garth, 1990; Trace Adkins, 1997; Kenny Chesney, 1998; Brad Paisley, 2000; Rascal Flatts, 2001.

Those were the years each played the Clark County Fair on the way to, well, slightly bigger things.

Will we remember Lee Brice, 2011, a decade from now?

Brice will play the fair’s Big Tent on Saturday night.

In a year that also happens to feature two prominent homegrown country singers under the Big Tent — Wyatt McCubbin opens the fair Friday; Kate Hasting closes it July 29 — it’s easy to overlook the 2011 fair’s up-and-coming national act.

Brice is the South Carolina native and former Clemson football player who debuted in a big way with the hit “Love Like Crazy.”

The song had earned two huge nominations at the most recent Academy of Country Music Awards — single and song of the year — but ended up losing both in April to Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me.”

Still, as they say, it’s an honor just to be nominated.

Especially when it’s your first album.

Contact this reporter at amcginn@coxohio.com.

How to go

Who: Lee Brice

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: The Big Tent at the 2011 Clark County Fair

Admission: Free with $5 gate admission (plus $3 for parking)

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