Country fans throw down despite chilly temperatures

COUNTRY THROWDOWN 2010 WITH MONTGOMERY GENTRY, LITTLE BIG TOWN, ERIC CHURCH, JACK INGRAM AND MORE, USANA Amphitheatre, June 12

WEST VALLEY CITY — An all-day, multi-stage country event is a great idea.

Too bad the weather didn't agree.

With rain and cold temperatures, the Country Throwdown, which was suppose to be a summer tour, wound up being a winter tour that happened to take place in June.

Still, some die-hard country fans didn't seem to mind the chill.

Ashley Haiggs and Kate Bourque were having a great time watching shows at the smaller Outlaw Stage.

Bourque, who works as a retail manager at New York & Co., really liked Jonathan Singleton & the Grove, who played not only originals, such as "This Old Heart" and "Why Don't We Just Dance," but also a medley of covers that featured The Allman Brothers' "Midnight Rider," The Beatles' "Come Together," Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2" and The Charlie Daniels Band's "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."

While Haiggs also liked the artists on the Outlaw Stage, she was gearing up for Montgomery Gentry, who would close the show on the USANA main stage around 11 p.m.

"Country music fits any mood you're in," said Haiggs, a teacher at South Jordan Middle School. "No matter if you're happy, sad or in between, there's always something a country song for it."

There were still others who struggled to keep warm.

Barry Warr and his wife, Jenny, said the event would have been better if the weather was warmer.

"It's bad," said Jenny. "We've been here since noon, and we didn't know we couldn't go back to the car."

Barry Warr, a maintenance specialist for Hewlett-Packard which is housed in the Franklin Covey warehouse in West Valley, left his jacket at home. So he decided to enter contests at the various kiosks to win some T-shirts.

"I would win them and put them on to keep warm," he said. "I've won three so far."

The Warrs were looking forward to seeing Eric Church on the main stage.

Well, Church didn't disappoint, and neither did Jack Ingram. Their high-voltage country sets came after some rousing tunes performed by Lost Trailers and The Eli Young Band.

In fact, all the bands played hard in spite of the weather.