LIMA, OH (WLIO) - A local artist is realizing his musical dreams as he takes his act to one of the biggest country music stages in the state.
Rising country music singer Derek Alan will be performing Friday, July 7th at the 42nd annual Country Concert Music Festival. After graduating from Lima Central Catholic in 2019, Derek then attended college at Bowling Green State University. It was there he began writing and recording music from a studio he built inside his three-person dorm performing at local bars. Since then his friends have joked about when they'd be seeing him on Stage at Country Concert, little did they know it would only take him 3 years.
"I started going like a couple of years ago with my buddies and I remember we were there on the first night, it's called the camper party, we were out there watching I think Jon Langston and they're (his friends) like well do you ever think you're going to get to play here? I'm like man hopefully, give me a couple of years maybe we'll see what happens and well here we are. It's pretty cool, I'm pretty excited about it," commented Derek Alan, Country singer.
However, Derek Alan still had to keep his Country Concert debut under wraps since competing in the JD Legend's Get the Gig contest last spring
"They had a bunch of us in this contest to see if we got to play it last year, and I didn't win the contest last year but I was one of the finalists and they invited all the finalists to come to play this year," said Alan.
It's been a big year for the country music singer, since relocating to Nashville this past summer he's booked gigs up and down Broadway while also performing at many different festivals and venues. However, he's extremely excited to come home and perform in front of all of the people who have supported him throughout the beginning of his career.
"They made a post about it online that said I'll be coming to play and even just the support I've been seeing on there, everyone commenting. Like a lot of people I wouldn't necessarily expect or people that haven't seen me before that are going to be there it's just cool to see everyone back home is so supportive and everyone's actually interested. You know, living down in Tennessee I don't get to see everyone as much anymore on a daily basis so it's super cool to see that everyone back home is showing that support and they're pretty excited about it, at least it seems like," added Alan.
Derek Alan will be performing Friday, July 7th at 5 PM on the Homegrown Honky Tonk Stage.
