Chris Young Added to 2018 State Fair of West Virginia Concert Lineup

LEWISBURG, WV (02/12/2018) (readMedia)-- State Fair Officials are excited to announce Chris Young has been added to the 2018 State Fair of West Virginia Concert Series on Friday, August 10 at 8 pm! Tickets for this show will go on sale at 10 am on Friday, February 16!

"Chris Young is a great addition to our 2018 lineup and we could not be more excited to welcome him to the State Fair of West Virginia in August," State Fair CEO Kelly Collins stated. "Tickets will go fast for this show, so we recommend buying them early!"

Ticket prices and details on how to order can be found at www.statefairofwv.com. Tickets will only be available via Etix at http://statefairofwv.com/entertainment/ or by calling 1-800-514-ETIX (3849) Monday through Friday 9 am – 6 pm or Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets will not be sold at the State Fair Box Office until later in the spring.

Over 11 years with RCA Nashville, Chris Young's country credentials speak for themselves: Ten #1s and 17 Gold or Platinum certifications; nominations from the Academy of Country Music, Billboard Music Awards, Country Music Association, and The Recording Academy; a massive, twice-extended headlining tour; and in 2017, he became the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry.

So when it came time to take the reins of his seventh studio project, Losing Sleep, Young says he felt completely at ease.

"I would argue there was less pressure," says the star, who reconnected with co-producer Corey Crowder for the new album. "We were even more comfortable than we were last time, and instead of it being like 'We have to nail this,' now it was like 'OK, we did something really cool last time. Let's try and build on that.'"

His previous set – the acclaimed I'm Comin' Over – was the most successful album of his career. Debuting at #1 and earning numerous industry accolades, it featured three chart toppers – "I'm Comin' Over," "Think of You" (featuring Cassadee Pope), and "Sober Saturday Night" (featuring Vince Gill) – and a sound that combined reverence for country's past with excitement about the future. But with Losing Sleep Young pushes even further down that road. Traditional themes fuse with streetwise urban flair, and it's all welded together by one of the current genre's most classic sounding voices.

"I think the experimentation I did on the last record was the most I had really done," he admits. "So with this one it was about continuing that. There's stuff like 'Losing Sleep' – which is really different sonically from a lot of things in my catalog – and there are going to be things that feel more familiar, too. Each song has a unique vibe and life to it."

Co-writing each of the album's 10 tracks, romance reigns supreme on lusty modern standouts like lead single, the Gold-certified and 10th #1 smash "Losing Sleep," while "Woke Up Like This" explores the sweeter side of passion. "Radio And The Rain" puts the listener in the middle of an emotional downpour, while "Hangin' On" transforms a clever turn of phrase into an uptempo she's-with-me anthem.

"Holiday" mixes up some margarita-loving summertime fun, and "Trouble Looking" is full of flirtatious friction. Meanwhile, "Blacked Out" places Young's wounded vocal center stage, and "Where I Go When I Drink" pushes it to the limit for a devastating piano ballad.

"We had a plan," he explains, "and it never felt like we were trying to force anything. The progression we took felt very comfortable, like 'OK, this is a little different but it's where I need to grow,' and the places where we stayed the same were 'Man, this is exactly where this song should be.'"

With Losing Sleep, which opened at #1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, Young takes a snapshot of an artist in the creative and commercial prime of his life – one who makes the extraordinary look easy. But at 32 years old, there's still plenty of time to keep evolving.

"Every album you make as an artist, you want to continue to grow," he explains. "And you also want people to be in love with it. That's such a difficult thing, but I think there's a little bit of something for everybody on this record and that's what I wanted to do. I think we accomplished it."