Even if you don't like horses and cows, you can still have a lot of Augusta Futurity fun with an event that involves your best Western clothes and good country music.

The Augusta Futurity Dance takes place from 8 p.m. to midnight Wednesday at Julian Smith Casino, Broad Street at Milledge Road, with the band Shiloh again providing the music. Tickets are $5 in advance at The Augusta Futurity's booth in the lobby of the Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center, or $10 at the door.

Shiloh members are L.M. English, band leader and steel guitar player; Scott Terry, fiddle and harmonica; Jeff Davidson, bass guitar; Brian Hancock, electric guitar; and Jamie Jones, drums.

Mr. Jones has played in such popular local rock and country bands as Impulse Ride, People Who Must, the Horse Creek Band, the Robbie Ducey Band and Mr. K's Nashville Sound. He and John Kolbeck were responsible for the widely acclaimed Down by the Railroad Tracks CD released in 2003.

Back with Shiloh at the Futurity Dance for the fourth time will be singer and songwriter April Amick, of Leesville, S.C. She has a CD, Treat Me Right, and has previously worked with other area bands, including Danny Rhea and Empty Pockets.

Grayson Wright, Miss Amick's high school chorus teacher in Gilbert, S.C., urged her to pursue singing as a profession. She got her real experience performing with her family's bluegrass-gospel band, The Amicks, with her father, Bruce; mother, Bobbie; and brother, Marty.

They were contestants on the TNN cable network show You Can Be a Star and opened shows in Columbia, and elsewhere for artists such as Tanya Tucker, John Michael Montgomery, Ronnie Milsap and Vince Gill. The Amicks, based in Leesville, still perform in this area as Darlene and The Amicks, featuring lead vocalist Darlene Ross.

In 1993, Miss Amick moved to Nashville, Tenn., and tried her luck as a songwriter for five years.

"I found out you can't make any money there singing, and many writers now are losing their song-publishing deals left and right," she said. "I sang on a lot of demos (demonstration records) for different song publishing companies, and I became a regular performer at the Bluebird Cafe."

One especially good thing that came out of that period was her joining with Ellen Britton, Helen Moore and BethAnn Clayton in a group called Queen of Hearts.

She still appears with the Nashville-based group about every two months and still sings occasionally with her family band.

"Music is like a drug," she said. "It really is. I've tried to quit, but I can't.

"It makes you so miserable because there are so many highs and lows, and you're never at a point where you want to be."