TRF announces musical lineup Jars of Clay, Steel Magnolia, Jackson In tribute to headline.

Jars of Clay, Steel Magnolia and Who's Bad: The Ultimate Michael Jackson Tribute Band will be the three big performers at this year's Fort Wayne Newspapers Three Rivers Festival, festival officials planned to announce this morning.

Gospel Music Association Dove Award winner Jars of Clay will be the headliner for the festival's main stage live music July 11 at Headwaters Park. Country music duo Steel Magnolia will headline the music lineup July 15, and Who's Bad will be the main act July 16. Main stage live music starts at 7 p.m. each evening.

The festival, which has dealt with leadership turmoil and funding problems this year, will take place July 9-17. It will include many other local and regional entertainment acts throughout its nine days.

Jars of Clay performed in the city three times in the late 1990s — at Memorial Coliseum with Michael W. Smith as part of a contemporary Christian music concert in 1996, as TRF headliner in 1997 and at the Scottish Rite Center in 1998. The group also recorded a song in 2006 for the first “Majic Miracle CD,” which radio station WAJI, 95.1-FM, releases annually to raise money for Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.

Jars of Clay has sold more than 6 million albums and won three Grammy Awards, the band's website said.

The duo who are Steel Magnolia — Joshua Scott Jones and Meghan Linsey — are one of country music's hot new acts. Their song “Keep on Lovin' You” ranks No. 8 on Billboard magazine's “Hot Country Songs” chart.

Jones and Linsey have their first album due out this summer. Steel Magnolia also has been nominated in the USA Weekend Breakthrough Video of the Year categories for the Country Music Television Awards.

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