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Ronnie McDowell
(The King Is Gone)
Friday February 3 2012 7:30 p.m.
Muskegon
Reeths-Puffer HighSchool, Muskegon, Michigan
Sponsored
by Muskegon Firefighters Local 370
For
additional tickets call 1-800-810-7410
ALSO
Saturday February 4, 2012 7:30 p.m.
Grand
Rapids Northview High School, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Sponsored
by Plainfield Township Firefighters
For
additional tickets call 1-800-810-7410
ALSO
Thursday May 17, 2012 7:30 .p.m.
Grand
Valley Armory, Wyoming Michigan
Sponsored
by South Kent FOP Lodge #134
For
additional tickets call 1-800-445-2143
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Ronald Dean (Ronnie)
McDowell (born March 25, 1950) is
an American
country music artist. He made his debut in 1977 with the
song "The King Is Gone", a tribute to
Elvis Presley, who had died not long before the single's
release. From that single onward, McDowell has charted more
than thirty Top 40 hits on the Billboard country
music charts. Two of his singles – "Older
Women" and "You're
Gonna Ruin My Bad Reputation" — reached Number One on
the country charts, while eleven more reached Top Ten. He
has also released more than twenty studio albums, and has
been signed to
Curb Records since 1986.
Following the death of
Elvis Presley in 1977, McDowell had a song that became
his first country and only pop hit with his self-penned
tribute song "The King Is Gone," which he recorded on the
independent Scorpion
record label. The record took off immediately, gaining
airplay on
country and
pop
radio stations across the
United States and
around the world. To date, "The King Is Gone" has sold more
than 5 million copies. In addition, McDowell also provided
vocals to the soundtrack to the 1979 made-for-TV Presley
biography
Elvis.
McDowell scored a second hit for the
Scorpion label entitled "I Love You, I Love You, I Love You"
before being signed by
CBS Records
Epic in 1979.
McDowell charted a string of hit
singles and
albums for Epic between 1979 and 1986. Every single
release, except one, became a
Top 10 hit, including "Older Women" and "You're Gonna
Ruin My Bad Reputation." Other hits during his Epic years
included "Watching Girls Go By," "Personally," "You Made A
Wanted Man Of Me," "Wandering Eyes", "All
Tied Up," and "In
a New York Minute."
McDowell toured constantly to support each
album release, and consequently built a large
fan base throughout the country. He sought the advice of
artists such as
Conway Twitty, who became his mentor and friend. Twitty
helped the young singer with advice about touring,
recording and entertaining the fans.
Moving to
Curb Records in 1986, McDowell scored a Top 10 hit with
"It's
Only Make Believe," a
duet with Conway Twitty on what had been Twitty's
breakthrough
rock and roll hit in 1958. Initially a member of
McDowell's back-up band would substitute for Twitty during
live performances. Recently, however, McDowell has performed
the song live with Twitty's prerecorded voice, followed by a
solo from a member of the back-up band. Two years later,
McDowell teamed up with
Jerry Lee Lewis for a duet that McDowell wrote, entitled
"You're Never Too Old To Rock N' Roll." He also recorded yet
another Top 10 hit with his
cover version of the pop standard "Unchained
Melody," which also became a #1 country
music video. He started appearing in larger venues and
touring with artists such as Conway Twitty,
Tammy Wynette and
Loretta Lynn before headlining his own shows.
McDowell sang thirty six songs on the
soundtrack, "Elvis," the
Dick Clark-produced
television
movie which featured
Kurt Russell as the performer. He also provided the
singing voice of the soundtracks for the
Priscilla Presley TV
biopic "Elvis
and Me", the ABC television series about the early years
of Presley's career, "Elvis," and the 1997
Showtime special, "Elvis Meets
Nixon."
In 2002, McDowell recorded two albums for
Curb Records, one consisting of beach music with
Rock & Roll Hall of Famer
Bill Pinkney's Original Drifters, entitled, "Ronnie
McDowell with Bill Pinkney's Original Drifters". The second
project, a country album, entitled "Ronnie McDowell
Country", a collection of six new McDowell penned songs and
a few country standards by such legendary country singers
and writers as
Buck Owens,
Harlan Howard and Dallas Frazier.
McDowell often tours with
The Jordanaires, Millie Kirkham, and one of Elvis
Presley's original sidemen,
D.J. Fontana. They stage a "no-jumpsuit" tribute to
Presley's
music and life. Two of McDowell's latest projects
include an upcoming album consisting of music from both the
"old school," and "new school" generations, and a single
entitled, “Hey Mr. Oilman,” which was released during the
recent gas price spike. Many other artists perform duets
with McDowell on the album, including
Bill Medley on the cover single, "Lost in Dirty
Dancing."
McDowell continues to tour and enjoys
painting as a hobby.
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