By Colleen Harrison

ALBERT LEA — The Freeborn County Fair Board has released the slated performers for this year’s grandstand entertainment during “The Six Best Days of Summer.”

Arguably the biggest name at this year’s Freeborn County Fair will be country music star Martina McBride, who will be the Saturday night headliner on Aug. 5. McBride has earned more than 15 major music awards, including four wins for Female Vocalist of the Year from the Country Music Association and three Academy of Country Music Awards for Top Female Vocalist.

McBride got her big break when Garth Brooks, for whom her husband worked on a sound crew, gave her an opening slot on his concert tour in 1990. She became highly successful and her songs topped country charts for the next 15 years. Some of her best-known songs are “Independence Day,” “Concrete Angel,” “I’m Gonna Love You Through It” and “A Broken Wing,” to name a few.

The Friday performer at the fair will be Kansas on Aug. 4. Considered one of America’s iconic classic rock bands, Kansas has a catalog of 15 studio albums. Kansas appeared on the Billboard charts for over 200 weeks throughout the ’70s and ’80s and played to sold-out arenas and stadiums throughout North America, Europe and Japan. “Carry On Wayward Son” continues to be one of the top five most-played songs on classic rock radio, and “Dust In the Wind” has been played on the radio more than three million times, according to a press release.

Diamond Rio is set to perform Aug. 3 on the grandstand. Diamond Rio signed to Arista Records and in 1991 with the release of “Meet in the Middle” became the first country music group in history to reach No. 1 with a debut single, according to a press release. The band is also known for their hits “How Your Love Makes Me Feel,” “One More Day,” “Beautiful Mess,” “Unbelievable” and “In a Week or Two,” among others.

Country music artist Collin Raye will perform Aug. 2 during the Freeborn County Fair. Raye shot to fame with “Love, Me” in 1991. He has also topped the charts with such songs as “On the Verge,” “One Boy, One Girl,” “What the Heart Wants,” “Every Second,” “That Was a River,” “Anyone Else” and “If I Were You.”

Up-and-coming country musician Kane Brown will open the grandstand entertainment at the fair on Aug. 1. Brown’s debut single “Used to Love You Sober” shot to the top of the iTunes country charts, selling over 255,000 downloads of the song and garnering more than 3 million streams on Spotify. His recently released EP “Chapter 1” saw similar success, claiming the No. 3 spot on the Billboard Country albums chart and hitting the top of the iTunes country and overall albums chart.