Colt Ford :: Official Site

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.”

In the past, he has bet and won on “up-and-comers” Rascal Flatts, Dixie Chicks, Toby Keith, Lady Antebellum, Luke Bryan and Eric Church.

“I’ve been very fortunate in that regard,” said Roberts, who is programming his 11th Hoedown.

Lowenstein, who releases his debut album “Getting Dressed in the Dark” in June, is hoping to bank on that success of the Hoedown. Although he had success in the pop genre with his brother for the ’90s hit “Crazy for This Girl,” Lowenstein said diving into country isn’t that much different.

“Who I am as an artist, I don’t really understand genres,” Lowenstein said. “I’m country but I also think I’m other kinds of music, too. I sort of view genres today as there’s good music and bad music. So people are like, ‘Are you country?’ ‘Yes and …’

“I’m really just a guy coming back to music after six years away and I was looking to find my audience. I went to Facebook and MySpace. I’d long since heard that the fans in country music are so supportive of their artists. I really had no idea what I was in for. I put my music through social media but the country music fans not only supported me, they actually broke me. They’re the ones who called their local country radio stations and requested for my song to be played. That’s how it happened. We never went out to country radio.

“The traditional model in country is to go from the record label, to the radio station to the fans. I went straight to the fans, then to radio then to a record label. So it’s kind of pretty cool.”

Rapping country star Colt Ford is performing at the Downtown Hoedown to increase his fan base, of course, but also to say thanks to WYCD for playing his music.

“I’ve talked to a few people who said it’s just incredible,” said Ford, who released “Chicken and Biscuits” on April 20. (On the collection, Ford, who performs at The Machine Shop as well tonight duets with Run-D.M.C.’s Darryl McDaniels.) “I’ve learned it’s a whole bunch of fun. They’ve played me a lot there in Detroit and I’m excited to be a part of it. Tim Roberts, the program director, he’s someone who got it and understood what I was doing and that the world wasn’t going to come to the end because there’s somebody like Colt Ford. He’s given me a shot up there.”

“With me being different, he’s one of those guys that’s so well respected in the industry and on the radio side of things. For him to take a chance on somebody who’s a little bit different like me, it’s a really big deal. So that’s really cool.”