THE REAL WORKING MAN MCCOY

Time after time, reviews of past Aaron Tippin performances say the headlining act -- whether Brooks & Dunn or Sawyer Brown -- might as well have stayed home.

Tippin seems to have that effect on people, an ability to charm, entertain and "stand for something," as an early hit advises, without a whiff of pretense or sophistry.

He's the guy sitting next to you at quittin' time at the Central Inn -- with talent, the real working man McCoy, a '90s grown-up country boy who knows as much about computers as he does about hog farming. And that's quite a bit.

A self-described "hillbilly" from South Carolina, Tippin drove heavy equipment and trucks, welded pipes and flew airplanes for corporate big shots before deciding to become a country singer. He's still a working man, he figures, and fans -- not record company executives -- are his boss.

"The minute those folks stop buying your records they'll drop you like a hot tater," he said by phone from a tour stop.

Tippin will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15, at the fair grandstand. Also headlining at this year's fair will be Holly Dunn, performing at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14, and Ricky Van Shelton, wrapping up the fair with a concert at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16.

Dunn, who performs a week from tonight, recorded the No. 1 singles "Love Someone Like Me," "Only When I Love," "Are You Ever Gonna Love Me" and "You Really Had Me Going," along with a string of Top 10 and Top 40 tunes, all of which she either wrote or co-wrote.

Van Shelton, the Sept. 16 headliner, debuted in 1987 with the album "Wild-Eyed Dream," which produced five hit singles. Since then he has sold more than 7 million albums. Among the highlights are "Rockin' Years" with Dolly Parton and "I'll Leave This World," chosen favorite single and favorite video by TNN viewers.

Tickets are available by phoning (314) 334-9250 or 1 (800) 455-FAIR.

Preceding the entertainers in the fair grandstand will be a demolition derby at 8 p.m. Monday, a tractor pull at 7 p.m. Tuesday and a truck pull at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Tippin has made a few concessions to entertaining for a living. He gave up smokeless tobacco for mint leaf snuff and the muscles he's obviously proud of come from a gym instead of a tool shed.

Tippin is headlining his own tour this time out, promoting his new "Tool Box" album. He predicts the album, due to be released in October, "is going to be the most successful record in the career of Aaron Tippin."

It's a long way from his scuffling days playing bluegrass with friends in barns or in the backs of barbershops. He switched to honky-tonks, but singing remained only a hobby to him until his divorce.

Tippin admits to a youthful wild streak. "I got married kind of young and it ended up costing me my marriage," he said. "I had a lot of growing up that didn't get done."

That began in Nashville, where Tippin sold songs to Charlie Pride and Mark Collie, became a full-time staff writer for a record label and in 1990 landed his own recording deal.

Tippin is best known for the songs "You've Got to Stand for Something," "There Ain't Nothin' Wrong with the Radio," "Working Man's Ph.D." and "I Got It Honest."

The first single off "Tool Box," Tippin's fifth album, is called "That's As Close As I'll Get to Loving You."

He now lives on a 300-acre farm outside Nashville, where he keeps 11 Mack trucks, a tractor and a dump truck around just for fun.

Tippin doesn't pay much attention to that business about blowing headliners off the stage. "There's a whole list of entertainers I can't touch," he says, mentioning Hank Williams Jr. and Reba McEntire for starters.

But plenty of concert-goers would put Tippin within spittin' distance.