By NICK YAMASHITA
The Progress
“Authentic” is what one of this year’s Clark County Fair headline performers said to expect at his Thursday night concert.
“We are authentic to the music we play,” said country music performer Chris Petersen in an interview last week with The Progress. “It will be small-town, good time fun.”
The America’s Got Talent country star has been busy since appearing on the show during the pandemic with multiple recordings and a lot of traveling for performances. This has included working with some of country music industry’s premier performers and celebrities, including Cody Johnson, 5x CMA Musician of the Year Jenner Fleenor, Justin Ostrander, Jeff King, Josh Turner, Craig Morgan, Randy Houser, and more.
“The experience on AGT was a good time and definitely different,” he said. “We had our plane tickets and everything, and then everything shut off really quick.”
“Still even though the world came to a halt with the COVID pandemic, they still did the show online,” Petersen said.
It was then that he did a performance of a Chris LeDoux cover with his dog Syd accompanying along.
“Anything with a dog gives you bonus points,” he said.
He added the fact that Simon Cowell and the other judges being dog-lovers definitely helped.
Unfortunately, Syd doesn’t do too well with a full band on stage, and will not be there, he said.
“He likes to be the loudest and, when he is not ,he doesn’t do well,” Peterson said.
Being from Southern Utah, Petersen has been to the Clark County Fair and Rodeo a couple of times before. He said he is extremely excited to be performing here.
“Favorite type of people will be there,” he said. “Nothing better than a rodeo crowd.”
Petersen feels lucky that he and his band will be at this year’s fair in Logandale with it being so close to home.
He was born and raised in Morgan, Utah but moved to Cedar City after falling in love with it. He and his wife, their two sons and soon to be daughter currently reside in Kanarraville, just south of Cedar City.
Petersen said he knows there will be a good draw of family, friends and fans from both the Utah and Las Vegas area as some of his band members are Vegas natives.
He said the musician travels are a whole family affair as his family tags along with him.
He hopes everyone gets dancing as he has had a massive following with the renewal of country swing and his social media Instagram with over 500K followers.
“We just plan to have a good time,” he said. “We plan on giving everyone a sense of what a small town concert feels like. Expect to have a good time! We will do what we love and stay true to what we do.”
For more information, check out Petersen’s website at www.cpcountry.com or follow him on instagram @Diehardcowboy.
