Did you hear that country music icon Clint Black is appearing at a major upstate New York event in August?
No, it’s not the New York State Fair. 
The dynamic Black will play on Aug. 13 at the Erie County Fair in Hamburg. His 90s country contemporaries Clay Walker and Tracy Byrd are on the bill that night in what sounds like a terrific triple-bill for fans of that cowboy-hat era.
Meanwhile the State Fair’s hopelessly incompetent booking agency has signed yet another–you guessed it– rapper.
The recently-announced shows featuring bland pop-country singer Lainey Wilson and lounge-singer-turned-phony-patriot Lee Greenwood amount to a feeble attempt to appease fans of genuine country music. 
Many of us remember when Clint Black performed three very entertaining concerts at the State Fair grandstand in 1993, 1994 and 1998. That was back when they had a competent booking agent–the legendary Joe LaGuardia–instead of clueless outsiders.
With nine weeks left until opening day, it may be too soon to predict that the current itinerary of the Chevrolet Music Series will surpass last year as the worst Fair concert line-up in history. But the over-saturation of the Chevy stages–particularly Suburban Park–with rap “artists,” several sporting names that look like typographical errors, has gone way too far. Clint Black is one of many classic country acts that have been ignored for years by the Fair. Its lineup, as currently comprised, desperately needs balance and variety. Bringing in some classic country acts and other performers who can actually sing and play instruments is a good place to start.
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