By BECKY GOFF
Little Apple Post
'Country Jam in the Flint Hills' festival will benefit K-State's Johnson Cancer Research Center's colorectal cancer research.
Country music fans will head to Alma on Saturday evening to enjoy a concert with headliner, nationally known, Craig Campbell, and secondary opener, Travis Marvin of Ottawa, KS.
Opening for Marvin and Campbell is Indiana country music artist, John Ryan, who credits his interest in music to his mom.
"We talked about it a little bit, in there, and I honestly think my mom. So my mom always sang and my mom's a pretty good singer. She won't...she won't say it and she acts like she's not but she a...she's a good singer. We just to go to Karaoke bars, like in Florida, the kids could go in, we'd go down on vacation and she'd always sing 'Harper Valley PTA,' that was like her song. She'd always kill it, and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. So I don't know, I never dreams of being a live musician. I just kind of did it as a hobby, and then I started playing shows and people are like 'Man, you sound pretty good.' and I'm like 'Well, thank you.' and I enjoyed writing the music and it's been kind of a snowball effect after that of just enjoying it. I love meeting new people and partying with new people. It's the best." John Ryan says.
Ryan made his way to Kansas for the first time to perform in Saturday's concert.
"First time in Kansas, ever, ever. I've never been, I've flown to Denver, I've been to Colorado and I've flown to Vegas twice, but I've never been in the 'in between states' if you will. It's beautiful, it's absolutely gorgeous out here." Ryan says.
Ryan says opening for such a well known artist is like a dream.
"Super exciting, we've been, I think we've had this in the books for about a year, now, right, it's been about a year or so and you know, I've...it's kind of been one of those things, it came up super quick, but you just throw it out there, 'yeah, I'm opening for Craig Campbell, you know, the guy that sings, 'Outskirts of Heaven'...it's really, really cool. It's an honor, I thank Bryan for having me and believing in me to come out and put on a good show for y'all. Hopefully we can do that." Ryan says.
Tickets are still available to purchase in advance or you can pay for your ticket with cash at the event.
"I appreciate everyone having me out and everyone's been super awesome, super nice so I'm just hoping to put on a good show tomorrow." Ryan says.