Yee Haw! Young Up-and-Comer Jake Owen to Join Country Legends at Sage Summit

This year’s Customer Appreciation Party is getting a dose of young blood with the addition of Country music darling Jake Owen!

Owen, of the #1 hit single “Barefoot Blue Jean Night,” will appear alongside the legendary Trace Adkins, Montgomery Gentry, and Diamond Rio at Sage Presents: A Night at the Grand Ole Opry on August 15th, the most rockin’ night of Sage Summit.

While most of the evening’s stars are children of the 60′s, with an impressive host of platinum albums and country music awards between them, 30-year-old Owen’s career is just starting to take off. In 2009, the Academy of Country Music awarded him “Top New Male Vocalist,” and last year he joined crossover superstar Keith Urban on his 2011 Get Closer world tour.

Owen brings a burst of young energy to a stage packed with classics, and a bit of “bad boy” status after recent news of some Cinco de Mayo debauchery. In March, his single “Alone With You” become his second song to hit #1 on the country chart, and today marks one month since he became engaged to his girlfriend Lacey Buchanan after proposing onstage.

One thing’s for sure: this year’s Customer Appreciation Party is going to be pretty memorable. And don’t forget, these amazing headliners will have a very special opening act—the winners of the Battle of the Bands at the Sage Partner Appreciation Party!

To get ready for this foot-stompin’ good time, check out some trivia on the performers who will be tearing up the Opry floorboards:

• All but one of Trace Adkins’ studio albums have received gold or platinum certification in the US, with 2005′s Songs About Me reaching 2x Multi-Platinum status for shipping two million copies.
• Adkins is the voice of the recurring character “Elvin” on the long-running animated series King of the Hill.
• Adkins lost his left pinky finger in an accident while opening a bucket with a knife, and asked doctors to reattach it at an angle so he could continue playing the guitar.
• Country duo Montgomery Gentry is composed of two Kentucky natives, Gerald Edward Montgomery and Troy Gentry.
• Troy Gentry went solo for a period in the 1990s and won the Jim Beam National Talent Contest in 1994.
• Since the band’s formation in Nashville in 1984, Diamond Rio has been comprised of the same six members: Gene Johnson (mandolin, guitar, fiddle, tenor vocals), Jimmy Olander (lead guitar, Dobro, Danelectro, banjo), Brian Prout (drums), Marty Roe (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Dan Truman (keyboards, organ, synthesizer), and Dana Williams (bass guitar, baritone vocals).
• The name “Diamond Rio” comes from the names of two truck manufacturers, Diamond T and REO.
• A trademark of Diamond Rio’s sound is the custom-built B-Bender guitar played by Jimmy Olander. He refers to this instrument as the Taxicaster, because its yellow body and black-and-white checkered pickguard resemble a taxicab.
• Besides playing country music, Jake Owen is also well-known in model railroad circles, and has been an avid collector since childhood.

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