Grant, Ne - The Perkins County Fairboard in Grant made it official on Friday morning. They'll have country music star Joe Nichols headlining the 2025 Fair on Saturday, July 19th. Nichols will be joined earlier in the night on stage by country music newcomer Josh Ross. Tickets On Sale now at www.perkinscountyfairgrounds.com
Since arriving on the scene as a teenager, Nichols has had a knack for finding and singing just the right song for the right moment. He did it with Number One hits “The Impossible,” “Gimmie That Girl” and “Brokenheartsville” (the latter of which he and Post Malone recently duetted live in Nashville), with the irreverent chart-topper “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off,” and with the back-to-back Number Ones “Sunny and 75” and “Yeah.” He does it with cover songs too: His mashup of Hank Williams Jr.’s “A Country Boy Can Survive” and Alice in Chains’ “Rooster” is a fan favorite.
It’s this same authentic connection that has earned Nichols over two billion audio streams to-date as well as three GRAMMY nominations, a CMA award, ACM and CMT Music Award trophies plus multiple gold and platinum-certified records.
Josh Ross is one of Nashville’s most promising singer-songwriter-performers. On an unconventional path of his own design, Ross pairs a dark, mellow blast of modern country rock with a warm vocal rasp, heart-on-his-sleeve writing and addictive hooks that respect no borders – genre or otherwise. Pulling influence everywhere from Guns N’ Roses and Metallica to country-rock outlaw Steve Earle, the former collegiate football player has leveraged his knack for emotional song craft into a series of Platinum-certified Top 5 Canadian country radio hits. His dusky power ballad “Trouble” rose to #1 in Canada, leading Ross to a CCMA Breakthrough Artist of the Year win.
Now breaking through in the US, the rising star has tallied more than 900 million career streams and been hailed as an Artist to Watch by Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora, MusicRow, the Grand Ole Opry and more. Touring alongside hard-rocking superstars like Nickelback, Brantley Gilbert and Bailey Zimmerman, he has already headlined his own sold-out run and will embark on select dates of Luke Bryan’s ‘Mind of a Country Boy Tour’ this summer.
Ross will release his new EP Complicated on March 29, co-writing seven of the project’s eight tracks. With thundering drums meeting steel guitars and the melodies of heartland pop, tracks like his current chart-climber “Single Again” show off Ross’ rich, edgy vocal set to a barroom anthem. Complicated arrives just five years after Ross arrived in Nashville, proving there’s much more to come from this next-generation talent who’s anything but standard.
The Perkins County Fair is really happy to continue it's concert series in 2025. Board President Kasey Kroeker told the POST that in 2025 the Fair was having not one, but two nights of concerts. The latter concert announcement is coming soon.