LA County Fair 2024: An eclectic musical dozen shows on the concert schedule

Russell Dickerson/courtesy LA County Fair

Once again, the LA County Fair hosts a diverse spring concert series slate, which features returning favorites, veteran hitmakers and other artists currently making waves on the music charts. Stage performers span Latin, R&B, hip-hop, country, classic rock, and pop genres.

May 3: War

A fixture on the Fair’s concert stage over the past few decades, this LA soul, funk, and jam band – still led by founding singer/keyboardist Lonnie Jordan – recently put out a box set surrounding its pop chart-topping 1972 album The World is a Ghetto.

Hit singles: “Spill the Wine” (with Eric Burdon), “Low Rider,” “Why Can’t We Be Friends,” “Summer,” “The Cisco Kid,” “Gypsy Man” and “The World is a Ghetto.”

Fun fact: Influential jazz pianist Bill Evans is one of the War front man’s all-time favorites and someone whose playing style Jordan says is reflected in his own.

May 4: Montell Jordan, TLC, Ceelo Green (see interview elsewhere on this blog)

Montell Jordan, an LA native and Pepperdine graduate, was among the initial signings to Def Jam Records and became an immediate sensation upon the release of million-selling 1995 debut album This is How We Do It. The R&B singer’s next three studio releases were certified gold.

Hit singles: “This is How We Do It,” “Falling,” “Let’s Ride,” “Get it on Tonite”

Fun fact: In 2017, Jordan and wife Kristin authored a book about making marriages work.

TLC also reigned supreme during the Nineties and Beyonce once cited the female hip-hop trio as an influence on Destiny’s Child. TLC’s multiplatinum albums CrazySexyCool and FanMail accounted for two of its four Grammy awards.

Hit singles: “Waterfalls,” “No Scrubs,” “Creep,” “Unpretty”

May 5: Ramon Ayala

“The King of the Accordion” specializes in Norteño music and is a two-time Grammy winner. The Mexican musician’s current single “El Reten” arrived in conjunction with a farewell tour that caps a 60-year career with Los Relampagos del Norte and Bravos del Norte.

May 10: Nelly, T.I.

Among the most successful rappers to emerge in the 2000s, Nelly came up in the St. Louis hip-hop scene and immediately found favor with debut album Country Grammar. His next four albums continued on a winning streak. Besides pop collaborations with Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson and ‘N Sync, he has also created music with country acts Florida Georgia Line, Tim McGraw, and Jimmie Allen.

Hit singles: “Hot in Herre,” “Dilemma,” “Grillz,” “Over and Over,” “Just a Dream”

Fun fact: Nelly has acted in the film and television series “The Longest Yard,” “Snipes,” and “CSI: NY,” 

T.I. (real name: Clifford Harris Jr.) began rapping at age 8 in Atlanta. His 2003 sophomore full-length Trap Musik kicked off a run of seven platinum or gold-certified albums. T.I. simultaneously launched an acting career in the mid-2000s.

Hit singles: “What You Know,” “Whatever You Like,” “Live Your Life” (with Rhianna), “Dead and Gone” (with Justin Timberlake”)

Berlin photo courtesy LA County Fair

May 11: Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Berlin

A classically trained mezzo-soprano, Brooklyn-born Pat Benatar was the first female - and second-ever - musician played on MTV in 1981 (for the video “You Better Run”). Two years prior, her hard rocking debut In the Heat of the Night made minor inroads, but the follow-up Crimes of Passion set a successful career course alongside guitarist, co-songwriter, and future husband Neil Giraldo, that continued through the Eighties.

Hit singles: “Hit Me with Your Best Shot,” “Love is a Battlefield,” “We Belong,” “Shadows of the Night,” “Invincible”

Fun fact: Benatar & Giraldo’s love story inspired the musical Invincible which premiered in Beverly Hills in ‘22.

May 12: Chase Rice, Parmalee

A football player in college, Rice worked in professional auto racing before pursuing a country music career. After co-writing Florida Georgia Line’s country chart topper “Cruise,” the North Carolina singer began landing hits of his own in 2013.

Hit singles: “Ready Set Roll,” “Gonna Wanna Tonight,” “Eyes on You”

Fun fact: Rice was runner-up on TV’s “Survivor: Nicaragua” in 2010.

May 17: The Manhattans featuring Gerald Alston, Ohio Players, The Original Lakeside

The Manhattans, an R&B vocal group from New Jersey, began in 1962, gained widespread success in 1976 with the No. 1 pop crossover single “Kiss and Say Goodbye,” and four years later with “Shining Star.” The two Midwestern funk acts in this lineup had their own chart-toppers with “Love Rollercoaster,” “Fire” (Ohio Players), and “Fantastic Voyage” (Lakeside).

May 18: Dustin Lynch, Russell Dickerson

Russell Dickerson emerged on the Nashville music scene during the early 2010s. Since then, the Tennessee native has notched five Top 10 country singles and toured with Thomas Rhett, Lady A and Kane Brown. In 2020, Florida Georgia Line guested on “It’s About Time,” from Dickerson’s second album Southern Symphony. The summer-themed EP Three Months Two Streets Down arrived last year.

Hit singles: “Yours,” “Blue Tacoma,” “Every Little Thing,” “Love You Like I Used To”

May 19: Banda Machos, Banda Maguey, Mi Banda El Mexicano

The 12-piece Banda Machos combines cumbia, ranchera and banda music elements for an electronic-based, danceable performance style called Quebradita. Debut album Serian las dos was released in 1990. Five years later, the Mexican norteño group’s tune “Zappa Mambo” was featured on the soundtrack to “My Family,” a drama film starring Edward James Olmos and Jimmy Smits. Concert album Festejando el Aniversario en Vivo Desde Las Vegas came out in 2022.

Midland photo courtesy LA County Fair

May 24: Midland, Stephen Walker Jr.

Frequently creating a New Traditionalist country vibe in the vein of George Strait with Eagles-style harmonies, Midland immediately struck a chord with its 2017 gold debut On the Rocks. After making a second Stagecoach appearance in ‘22, the Texas trio put out The Last Resort: Greetings From, filled with what guitarist Jess Carson called “honky-tonk truths” and a Jon Pardi guest spot.

Hit singles: “Drinkin’ Problem,” “Make a Little,” “Burn Out”

Fun fact: Frontman Mark Wystrach had acting roles in the Oscar-winning film “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” TV soap opera “Passions,” and “CSI: Miami.”

May 25: 38 Special, Molly Hatchet, the Outlaws

All these of these Florida classic rock bands were mainstays on Album Oriented Rock radio at some point during the Seventies or Eighties, with 38 Special enjoying the longest and most successful chart run.  

Hit singles: “Caught Up in You,” “Hang on Loosely,” “If I’d Been the One,” “Second Chance” (38 Special); “Flirtin’ with Disaster,” “Satisfied Man” (Molly Hatchet); “There Goes Another Love Song,” “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky” (Outlaws)

May 26: Los Tucanes de Tijuana

Known for composing narcorridos - narrative songs that recount heroic struggles of outlaws and drug lords – the Tijuana norteño group has issued more than 60 albums since forming in 1987. It won the Best Norteño Album at the Latin Grammys for 2012’s 365 Dias and was featured in “Hecho en Mexico,” a documentary about Mexican culture. The group also has soundtracked songs for film (2016’s animated 3D film El Americano and TV (Telemundo telenovela “Senora Acero: La Coyote”), while singer/guitarist Mario Quintero Lara served as a judge on Telemundo reality show Yo soy el Artista.

Fun fact: Los Tucanes de Tijuana performed at Coachella 2019.

All concert tickets include admission to the fair. For more information, go to lacountyfair.com/concerts.

A version of my roundup originally appeared in SoCal News Group (SCNG) papers in print and online.