Chicago Country Music Festival runs Oct 8, 9 in Millennium Park

The popular CMA Songwriters Series returns to the Chicago Country Music Festival for the second year featuring Country Music superstar, Kix Brooks. The CMA Songwriters Series showcases the best of Nashville's hit songwriters! Other featured songwriters include Bob DiPiero, David Lee Murphy and The Band Perry. The Chicago Country Music Festival is October 8 & 9 in Millennium Park and is FREE to the public.

The series features four successful songwriters from Nashville, who line up on stage and with guitar in-hand take turns telling the stories behind their hit songs and performing them as originally written. Hear hit songs made famous by Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, George Strait, Tim McGraw, Jason Aldean and many more! The series will be featured on the Americana Stage on the South Promenade beginning at 3:00 p.m. on October 9.

Kix Brooks, best known as one-half of the superstar country duo Brooks & Dunn, is a force in Country Music. Brooks & Dunn have numerous #1 hits on radio – including the recent CMA Award winning Song and Single of the Year "Believe". Beyond his talent as a performer, he is an excellent songwriter. But before Brooks arrived at this point, he made an impression in Nashville as a songwriter. A few of his biggest hits as a songwriter include the Brooks & Dunn recorded songs "Red Dirt Road, "Only in America" and "South of Santa Fe".

Bob DiPiero is an entertaining and compelling performer and one of a handful setting the bar for present-day songwriter/entertainers. He is one of Nashville's most consistent and prolific writers of hits, and he remains at the top of his profession more than two decades after hitting #1 on the charts for the first time in 1983. His long string of hits includes the Oak Ridge Boys' "American Made," Montgomery Gentry's "If You Ever Stop Loving Me," Vince Gill's "Worlds Apart," Shenandoah's "The Church On Cumberland Road," Ricochet's "Daddy's Money," George Strait "Blue Clear Sky," Brooks & Dunn's "You Can't Take the Honky Tonk Out Of the Girl," and Martina McBride's "There You Are."

David Lee Murphy is an American country artist with four albums producing a total of thirteen singles on the country chart, including the number one hit "Dust on the Bottle" from 1995. Although he hasn't recorded since 2004, Murphy has co-written several singles for other artists, including the Number One hits "Living in Fast Forward" for Kenny Chesney and "Big Gree Tractor" for Jason Aldean.

The Band Perry is comprised of siblings Kimberly, Reid and Neil. Inheriting a cross-pollinated love of country and rock & roll from their parents, these stars on the rise say that they bleed the bright red blood of American music. In July of 2005, when after years of writing together, the siblings decided to join forces as one band.

The Chicago Country Music Festival is presented by the Mayor's Office of Special Events and sponsored by Best Buy, Bud Light, Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago Tribune, Communications Direct, 2011 Ford Explorer, Hinckley Springs, Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, LaGrou Distribution System, Metromix.com, Millennium Garages, Pepsi-Cola, and US 99.5. For more information visit www.chicagocountrymusicfestival.us or call the Mayor's Office of Special Events at (312) 744-3317.