On Saturday September 3rd Joe Diffie will be headlining the ComEd Country Stage at Rockford's On The Waterfront festival. Diffie will be touring in support of his latest CD of songs based in a hybrid of classic and modern country sounds "Tougher Than Nails". Diffie's name should be familiar to country music fans in the Rockford area - he has had ten number one country hits in his career.  The title track from this latest set has proven that it, too has chart potential, jumping straight to number 19.

Diffie is a native of Tulsa, OK, and got started in music at a very young age. He first performed in front of an audience at the age of four in his aunt's country band. With such an early start, who would have expected anything but a career in music from Diffie? His first professional work in the music industry was as a songwriter rather than performer, though. His song "Love On The Rocks" was recorded by Hank Thompson and that started Diffie in a career of writing music for other performers.

Eventually he made the transition from songwriter to songwriter performer, and it obviously has been a good career move for him. Since that time he has a string of hits with such songs as "Home," "If The Devil Danced In Empty Pockets," "John Deere Green," "Third Rock From The Sun" and "Bigger Than The Beatles". In the process he has racked up quite a track record - 17 top 10 hits, two platinum albums and two gold albums.

On the new album he also produced. That disc is co-produced by Lonnie Wilson and Buddy Cannon. The disc also includes a duet with country legend George Jones in the form of the song "What Would Waylon Do?" Combine that album's material with a rich legacy of music from his earlier releases and its obvious that Diffie's On The Waterfront performance should be sure to please country music fans young and old.

Saturday Sept 2nd - ComEd Country Jam Stage - 10:00pm