Courtesy Photo Diamond Rio will perform a concert on Feb. 28 at the APlex in Alpena. Tickets go on sale this Friday.

ALPENA — The popular country band, Diamond Rio, will be coming to Alpena in February, and tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. on Friday.

The band was very successful in the 1990s, with their first single, “Meet in the Middle” hitting Billboard magazine’s number one position in 1991.

Since then, Diamond Rio has sold more than 10 million albums, won a Grammy Award, a Dove Award, and earned six Vocal Group of the Year wins between the Country Music Association Awards and the Academy of Country Music Awards. They earned five multi-week number one singles, 22 Top 10 singles, and have put out two greatest hits albums, three certified platinum albums, and five gold albums. They have also released an autobiography.

The band is well-known for many hits, including “How Your Love Makes Me Feel,” “One More Day,” “Beautiful Mess,” “Unbelievable,” “In A Week or Two,” and more.

Synchronizations, owned by Norm and Elaine Sommerfeld, is bringing Diamond Rio to the APlex on Friday, Feb. 28. Doors will open at 6 p.m. A family band from St. John’s called PPM will open for Diamond Rio.

“Everybody has loved them that has come to our concerts,” Norm Sommerfeld said of PPM. “They will take the stage at 7, and then our headliner is going to take the stage at 8:30.”

He is elated to be able to bring Diamond Rio to Alpena.

“They have a lot of number one hits,” Sommerfeld said. “We got to see them about a month ago, down in Shipshewana, and they are absolutely wonderful people, and they have most of the original band members, although two just retired, and they picked up a new fiddle player and a new drummer.”

Tickets to the show are $60 per person for general admission, and $90 per person for VIP seating.

“There are 1,000 seats, and once they’re gone, they’re gone,” Sommerfeld said. “We sold out the last two (concerts) with Collin Raye and Aaron Tippin, so we assume we will sell out again.”

He said Northeast Michigan strongly supports country music, especially from that era.

“I think that for Alpena County and the surrounding areas, country is the big thing,” Sommerfeld said. “It’s really country and ’80s (music). I think it’s the age of Alpena. The majority of people that come to these concerts are from 40s up to 70, so I think a lot of people remember that.”

He can’t wait to offer this concert to the community.

“We are very excited because this is not only the band that’s cost the most, but it’s probably the biggest band we’ve brought here,” Sommerfeld said.

Tickets will be available at aplex.org. The APlex is located at 701 Woodward Ave., Alpena.

Proceeds from this concert will benefit Friends Together, Tunnel to Towers, and the Special Needs Prom.