By Flint Journal staff
May 13, 2010, 9:21AM

Courtesy | For The Flint JournalColt Ford
— Christina Fuoco-Karasinski | For The Flint Journal
Jaron Lowenstein of Jaron and the Long Road to Love hadn’t heard of Detroit’s free country festival, the Downtown Hoedown, until a fan introduced him to it via social media. He was immediately won over.
“My fans were telling me about the Hoedown,” said Lowenstein, who in the ’90s performed as part of Evan and Jaron with his twin brother. “I learned about it on my Facebook wall. My fans kept saying, ‘Are you coming to Hoedown?’ I thought, ‘What is this Hoedown? I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ It’s this show. (Detroit radio station) WYCD puts it on.”
Banking on his hit “Pray for You,” Jaron and the Long Road to Love was invited to the event and Lowenstein couldn’t be more thrilled.
“It’s crazy,” Lowenstein said. “I saw this picture and it’s like cowboy hatville in Detroit. It’s crazy. It’s so cool looking.”
Established in 1983, the Downtown Hoedown, located in Hart Plaza, is widely recognized as the largest free country music festival of its type in the nation. This year, the event takes place Friday, May 14 through Sunday, May 16, and boasts headliners Dierks Bentley, Uncle Kracker and the Zac Brown Band. Other performers include Darryl Worley, who just returned from a USO tour in the Middle East, and Steve Azar, among others.
“I try to mix it up and make it different ever year,” said organizer Tim Roberts, operations/program director for Detroit-area radio stations WYCD and WOMC. “I know the history of it. I have the roster of every band that’s ever played and what year they’ve played. I try to make it fresh and interesting. I try and bank on new artists that I think are going to be hitting their stride by the time the event comes around, which is almost a year in advance. Then I just try to have some rock-solid performers that I know are going to put on a great show.”