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YREKA – The Siskiyou Golden Fair has announced that country music star Jack Ingram will be the headlining entertainment at the 2010 fair along with opening act Trailer Choir.

This is a new and fresh package of country music entertainment,” said fair CEO Rebecca Desmond. “The market is very tough for a small fair like ours and we are very excited to have put together this great show.”

When Jack Ingram won the 2008 Academy of Country Music award for “Best New Male Vocalist,” thousands of people in the audience had to be smiling to themselves about that whole “new” thing. They knew the 30-something, steel-eyed veteran accepting that trophy on that stage in Vegas had been rocking roadhouses, theaters and stadiums relentlessly since 1997, that he’d been celebrated by critics and fans of hard-core country music for more than a decade, and that as a Texas-born songwriter and performer, he’d been on the short list of next generation artists who could fill the boots of Lone Star legends like Willie and Waylon and the boys.

But the award did mean that Ingram, after trials and setbacks that would have buckled other artists, had at last matched the commercial success he’d always wanted with the integrity on which he’d always insisted. So he told the crowd with no small measure of pride and triumph that night that “big dreams and high hopes” can come true.

Now, as if to validate and amplify that truth, Ingram remains in the forefront of country music with the album Big Dreams & High Hopes, the seventh studio disc of his career and his third for Nashville maverick indie label Big Machine Records. Its 11 tracks range through the many facets of Ingram’s unique take on country music and songwriting. There’s the textured and contemplative “Seeing Stars” sung in ethereal tandem with Patty Griffin.You’ll find a couple of superb roots rocking country songs Jack wrote with compadre and mentor Radney Foster. And you’ve probably already heard the swimming hole party anthem “Barefoot and Crazy” which quickly became a radio smash and a soundtrack for the hot summer of 2009.

For Trailer Choir, the last two years have been a frenetic introduction to the national stage. From their signing with Show Dog Nashville to being named About.com’s Best New Country Duo/Group, the trio made a notable impression on country music without seeming to pause for so much as an extra breath. But as they release their self-titled debut, Butter, Big Vinny and Crystal know their story will be told only as the full spectrum of their music unfolds for all to hear. Sheer energy got their foot in the door, but it is their heart that will help them take the room. And through it all, everyone stands to have one serious good time.

Toby Keith’s fans enthusiastically embraced the band and their good-time sound when they toured with him. Songs from the album “Off The Hillbilly Hook,” including the title track, “My Next Five Beers,” “Rollin’ Through The Sunshine” and “Rockin’ The Beer Gut,” as well as their “did you see that?” stage show, led to a multitude of accomplishments. Those include 49 shows opening for Keith, performances at the CMA Music Festival and National Finals Rodeo, “Off The Hillbilly Hook” featured in the movie and soundtrack of the feature film Beer For My Horses, and the original song “Last Man Standing” used by ESPN & ABC in a national NASCAR promotion.

Tickets for the concert and other Siskiyou Golden Fair grandstand events will go on sale in June.

For more information, contact the fair office at 842-2767.

The 2010 Siskiyou Golden Fair, “Country Roots & Cowboy Boots,” runs August 11-15 in Yreka.