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"I just love what I do, sharing my music with people who know it, and those who don't. I’ve got a lot of 'girl power' songs and it's a lot of fun. When I put my shows on, I try to make them an event and not just put a CD on. The fan base keeps growing when you work it like that." Danielle Peck

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Anybody can listen to a CD, but when they go to a concert they should expect the full live-music experience, and that’s exactly what Danielle Peck is promising those attending her concert Saturday night at the Tehama District Fair in Red Bluff.

"I'm really looking forward to coming," Peck, 29, said during a phone conversation from her home in Nashville. "I just love what I do — sharing my music with people who know it, and those who don't. I've got a lot of 'girl power' songs and it's a lot of fun. When I put my shows on, I try to make them an event and not just put a CD on. The fan base keeps growing when you work it like that."

Peck and her band will perform at 7:30 p.m. Gold Circle seats are $10 (including $7 fair admission) and general admission seats are free with fair admission.

The daughter of a U.S. Marine, Peck grew up in Coshocton, Ohio, in a family with strong musical roots. Her mother's side of the family sang in churches and her father's parents and grandparents were steeped in country music, often playing at local dances.

The first song Danielle learned was Johnny Cash’s "Folsom Prison Blues" and she wrote her first song at age 10, at the same time she was fashioning her own cassette labels for her imaginary Danielle Peck records, complete with titles and cover art. She sang in church as a soloist and in the choir and by 16, she joined a band and was sneaking into bars to play.

"I wasn’t supposed to be in there (bars) because I was underage," she said, "so I had to dress older, act older, sneak in through the back door, do my show, and then slip out the back again before anyone could figure out I was underage."

"I was the girl singer," she said. "I would sing Reba and Trisha and a lot of Patsy Cline. We played weekends and hit the local summer fairs. While my friends were into sports – I was consumed with music."

At 18, her dad bought her a sound and light system that the family jokingly referred to as her "college tuition." When she graduated from high school, she hit the road leading her own band adding regional fairs and festivals to the schedule.

After moving to Nashville, she worked as a waitress and wrote songs in her off hours. "I’d wake up at 8 in the morning, go and write songs until 2 in the afternoon, change clothes, work the restaurant until 2 or 3 in the morning, get up early the next morning and do it again," she said.

She scored a sizable break with the single "I Don’t" and her self-titled record was released on the Big Machine Records label. Peck said a new album is in the works. Peck was recently invited to sing the National Anthem before a NASCAR race and she has also performed the anthem at baseball and football games. "I’ve got that down. I’m the anthem girl. All those things I did before, I chalk it up to experience. It made me realize this is what I want to do. It made me want to practice so I could play in the big leagues," Peck said.

Peck has enjoyed success with the singles "Finding a Good Man," "Isn’t That Everything" and "Bad For Me." She said fans can expect to hear those as well as some selections from her as-yet unnamed second album.

The theme for the 87th annual Tehama District Fair is "Go Hog Wild." The first to go hog wild will be the Professional Bull Riders competition, part of the PBR's Enterprise Tour, which gets underway at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25, with tickets priced at $12 for kids 12 and under; $27 for adults; $42 for box seats; and $62 for VIP seats that include dinner and a beverage.

Friday, Sept. 26, features a street dance at 7 p.m. with music by Wild Side. Saturday highlights include the junior livestock auction at 10 a.m., the naming of Little Miss Tehama County at 1 p.m. and a street dance at 7 with music by Inside Straight.

Sunday highlights include the demolition derby at 6 p.m. and a 7 p.m. street dance with music by River Rock. Fair admission is $7 for adults; $2, children aged 6 to 12; free, children 5 and under and uniformed military members.

Three-day passes are $18 for adults and $5 for children. A family package is $65 and includes admission for four, three carnival wristbands and free parking.

For tickets and more information, call the Tehama District Fair office at 527-5920 or stop by the office at 650 Antelope Blvd. in Red Bluff.

Jon Lewis is a freelance writer who lives in Redding. Contact him at bigkatlou@yahoo.com.