Florida Strawberry Festival

When a band tours practically nonstop for 15 years, it’s difficult for its members to remember when they played certain shows. But, in some cases, they’ll clearly remember the venue. Rock legends Styx count the Florida Strawberry Festival as one such venue. “We did play it once, and it was fantastic,” singer and keyboardist Lawrence […]

Although some Plant City residents may not have been too happy about last month’s nippy weather, country music darling Kellie Pickler knows it could be much worse. “Don’t complain about how cold it is in Florida,” Pickler says. “I’m in Ohio, and it’s freezing!” Hopefully, it will be much warmer in Plant City when she […]

Boyz II Men, the four-time Grammy-winning act, will bring its soulful sound to the Florida Strawberry Festival this year for the first time. “We’re excited be a part of this show, with talented artists like The Band Perry and Lee Brice and Rascal Flatts,” says founding member Shawn Stockman. “We want to bring our own […]

In many ways, Caroline Kole is a young soul. And she should be — she’s only 16. But already, she’s been climbing the country music charts and earning airtime. Still, the Tampa Bay native, who now lives in Nashville, gets excited about the little things in life. She remembers her first snow day in Tennessee. […]

Lee Brice seems to approach music like a point guard handles a basketball game: He does well for himself and makes his teammates look good, too. The South Carolina-born country singer has had just as much success writing songs for other artists as he has for himself. He has three chart-topping singles to his own […]

Fitting in with an all-star country cast, Little Big Town will take the Wish Farms Soundstage Saturday, March 1. The quartet’s lineup — Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Jimi Westbrook and Phillip Sweet — has remained the same since its 1998 inception. Little Big Town’s self-titled debut released in 2002, on Monument Records. But, it was the […]

Perhaps none of the performers at this year’s Florida Strawberry Festival has a story with as much variety as country star Colt Ford. The big, Georgian singer-songwriter, born Jason Farris Brown, is notable for having blended country music with hip-hop to create a style not often heard in today’s country scene. Although the hip-hop influence […]

  Sometimes, all you need is love. That’s the approach that country music duo Thompson Square have taken with their work, and their quick rise to fame is the proof. The husband-and-wife team of Keifer and Shawna Thompson has been making music together since 2010, with Shawna on the microphone and Keifer on guitar and […]

After 12 albums, multiple Grammys and nearly two decades of performing, Christian rock band Third Day has witnessed the power of music to impact lives. Third Day was formed in Marietta, Ga., in the 1990s by lead singer Mac Powell, guitarist Mark Lee and former member Billy Wilkins. Bassist Tai Anderson and drummer David Carr […]