The appearance Sunday of singer Hunter Hayes at Chevy Court gives Live Nation, the New York State Fair’s booking agency, plausible deniability on the issue of country music.

Hunter Hayes is projected on the screen at Chevy Court.

Hunter Hayes is projected on the screen at Chevy Court.

Now in its third year of turning its back on country fans, long among the Fair’s most loyal concert patrons, the booking monster throws hungry fans a couple of morsels of country lite, with the whiny Hayes to be followed on Labor Day by popish Maren Morris. In between, they toss in the novelty act sideshow called Big and Rich to complete their country cover.

There’s fierce debate over what constitutes country music, but Hayes, Morris and most of the acts Live Nation books at the amphitheater are obviously not the same genre as the fiddle-and-steel-guitar stars that dominated concert halls, honky-tonk dance clubs, radio stations–and New York State Fair venues–in the 20th century.

Dave Mason and a back-up singer play Chevy Court Aug. 23.

Dave Mason and a back-up singer perform at  Chevy Court Aug. 23.

Back in 1989, the year before Hayes was born, Chevy Court, then known as Miller Court, featured Hall of Fame outlaw Waylon Jennings, spunky hitmaker Tanya Tucker and southern rockers the Charlie Daniels Band. The trend took hold with such country stalwarts as Trisha Yearwood, Steve Wariner, Marty Stuart, Diamond Rio, Martina McBride, Toby Keith, Patty Loveless, Suzi Bogguss, Crystal Gayle, Mark Chesnutt, Ronnie Milsap, Brad Paisley, Asleep at the Wheel, and a traveling troupe of Grand Ole Opry stars lighting up the stage in the years that followed.

Fans of retro-country deserve a chance to hear their favorites at the Fair and when they had a chance, as with Vince Gill, Sara Evans, Ronnie Dunn, Sawyer Brown, Trace Adkins, the Gatlin Brothers, Gary Allan, Sawyer Brown and the Oak Ridge Boys in recent years, they generally came out in large numbers. Most of the acts mentioned above continue to roll their tour busses over the nation’s highways every summer and there’s no reason a few of them couldn’t park behind Chevy Court for a one-night stand.

No reason except ineptitude and neglect by Live Nation.