By Joshua Clark Entertainment Editor

Branson Tri-Lake News

 
Bob Cannella and Up Close Concerts have brought to Branson some of the biggest names in country music and three more will be added to the list Oct. 22.

"The Front Men" tour featuring Randy Owen, lead singer of Alabama, Richie McDonald, original lead singer of Lonestar, and Larry Stewart, lead singer of Restless Heart, will hit the stage at Tri-Lakes Center.

"It's called ‘The Front Men' tour because it features the lead singers of three country music supergroups," Cannella said.

"They have 50 No. 1 hits combined and (Owen), (Mc-Donald) and (Stewart) will be on stage together backing each other up. It's going to be a casual atmosphere filled with hit after hit."
Getting three lead singers of such pedigree together seem-ed to come together easily, according to McDonald.

"I know that I always wanted to do something that was closer to what I had always done, and (Owen) and (Stewart) and I were all in these great bands and it's just a great fit," he said, "three of us up there on stage, telling the stories of the songs from a different time in music."
Owen has been the lead singer for the group Alabama since it began in the late 1960s.
The group became the most commercially successful country act in the 1980s, and remains one of the bestselling American musical acts of all time.

The band Alabama is often credited with bringing country music groups into the mainstream, paving the way for the success of today's top country music groups.
"Randy Owen is legendary," McDonald said. "I mean, (he) is one of the ones who paved the way for us, as far as groups are concerned, and he set the bar on how to act as a person and artist, as far as how to treat other people."

Alabama has taken home countless awards and honors, and has tallied more than 30 No. 1 hits, including "Tennessee River," "Old Flame," "Mountain Music," "Dixieland Delight," "Roll On (Eighteen Wheeler)," "She and I," "High Cotton" and "Song of the South." Owen and the band were also responsible for more than 60 Top 40 songs.

Stewart spent more than a decade as front man for the group Restless Heart, which was one of the most popular bands of the 1980s. After their breakthrough hit, "That Rock Won't Roll" in 1986, the band reeled off five straight No. 1 hits with "I'll Still Be Loving You," "Why Does It Have To Be (Wrong or Right)," "Wheels," "The Bluest Eyes in Texas" and "A Tender Lie." The band also tallied more than a dozen Top 40 hits during that time.

"(Stewart) is just an unbelievable person," McDonald said. "It feels like we're brothers up there."
Lonestar burst onto the country scene in 1995 with its Top 10 hit "Tequila Talkin'" followed by No. 1 hits "No News," "Come Crying To Me," "Smile," "What About Now," "Tell Her," "I'm Already There," "From My Front Porch Lookin' In" and "Mr. Mom."

The group's biggest hit came in 1999 with the song "Amazed." Having spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the country charts, "Amazed" would later reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making Lonestar the first country act to top both the Hot Country Songs and Hot 100 charts since 1983, when Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton accomplished the same feat with "Islands in the Stream."

McDonald sees the evening as a chance for fans to connect on a completely new level.
"People are going to hear the hits, all the songs that made Alabama, Restless Heart and Lonestar who they are and experience the voices that gave those groups life," McDonald said. "For me, I'm going to do all the hits, as well as some material off of my new album. I'll mix it up a little bit."

Having three such heavyweights in the industry on stage together for one evening may present some challenges for most artists. According to McDonald, there is nothing but mutual respect and adoration from all three performers.

"The best thing is we all respect one another and everything we've done in our respective groups," McDonald said. "There won't be any ego involved. These guys are great and this will be a very entertaining show."

In addition to performing an evening of country music hits, the trio will also observe a Branson tradition immediately following the show.  "All of the guys will be signing autographs after the concert," Cannella said. "We have searched hard and can't find any show that has ever been in Branson with the original lead singers representing anywhere near this many No. 1 hits."

While these performers have taken the stage separately in the region before, the fact that they will all perform on the same stage will be something that shouldn't be missed, according to McDonald.
"So many people have seen those bands in concert, but this is more intimate," McDonald said. "We try to make the fans feel involved in the show, like they're right on stage and they won't see an unplugged unique show like this very often. They'll get to find out why (Owen) wrote ‘Feels So Right' or why I wrote ‘I'm Already There.' It's going to be a great night of entertainment."

Tickets go on sale Wednesday, Aug. 4, at 9 a.m. at Tri-Lakes Center, or by calling the box office at 417-336-0219. Visit upcloseconcerts.com.
 
 
 
 

From - The Saginaw News
By:  Sue White

Randy Houser knew he would arrive in Saginaw running on adrenaline -- the popular country singer was a key player in last week's CMA Fair in Nashville -- but at Saturday's KCQ Country Music Fest on Ojibway Island, Richie McDonald had him beat.

After performing a benefit concert Friday night at First Baptist Church in Nashville, the former lead singer of Lonestar found out his flight from Louisville, Ken., to Detroit was cancelled. So, renting a car, he made a mad dash for Michigan, eager to finally say, "I'm already there!"

"My show was done around 11, and when I found out about the flight, it was time for Plan B," he said, sitting for a few minutes in the clubhouse before taking the stage. "Coming out of Nashville, the interstate was closed down and I thought, oh, this is going to be a long night. But I called a friend who talked me through some back roads.

"I hit it perfectly from there, only going through a little mist, a little lightning, instead of the big storms they were expecting. I'm not a speed demon, but with a lot of coffee, I was in Saginaw by 9 in the morning. I was too excited to stop, and I'm still running on adrenaline. I picked up one of those five-hour energy drinks and I didn't even need it."

Jason Michael Carroll was on time to open the main stage at noon, said Barbara Sheltraw, who with Jim Kramer hosts the morning show at WKCQ-FM, 98.1. But  immediately afterwards, he had to catch a flight to Ohio for a show there that night, and he gave WKCQ staffers a bit of a start when he veered instead to meet a few fans lined up along the fence.

"What's happening is we have acts who are popular but still affordable, so everyone's booking them," Sheltraw said. "The more established ones take their time; the worst problem we've had before this was trying to haul tour buses out of the mud."

Only Jimmy Wayne, who took a week off his cross-country walk in support of foster kids to close Saginaw's concert, and the Clio band Stone Cold had the day to themselves, along with about 85,000 fans who braved the chance of storms and the reality of a blazing sun to catch it all. They walked the grounds, lined the fences around backstage and danced and waved the American flag as Houser sang about his dirty little hat.

"I'll be perfectly blunt, it's less than last year," said Ken MacDonald, CEO of MacDonald Broadcasting, which owns WKCQ. "But we're seeing a much younger crowd, too, to see what we've been calling the young hunks of country. Last year was Travis Tritt, a country legend, but I'm thinking people are going to discover, especially with Richie McDonald, that these are some really talented acts."

This is the 19th year that the station has put on the free country concert, he said, after 19 years of its sister station, WSAM-AM, 1400, hosting the annual raft race. And soon, MacDonald said, people might see a few tweaks in the festivities.

"I'd like to do more than one day, though I'm not sure if we have the manpower to pull that off," he said. "Or maybe we could expand it into an art and crafts fair in Hoyt Park and Old Town. This is a wonderful event for the whole community, for mid-Michigan, and we ought to play on that."

Last year was one to remember, agreed Stone Cold's Paul Wixson -- "It was great meeting Travis Tritt and finding out he was really a nice guy," Wixson said -- but the band had a "fantastic" time playing between sets Saturday, too.

"We tried to mix up our music, a little country and a little classic rock, and you could see how everyone was feeding off each other," he said of the day's younger line-up. "Our dream, of course, is to be one of the bands on the main stage, but anytime you can meet your heroes and play right next to them, you're going to go home pretty happy."

Even Stone Cold had people lined up for autographs, a sure sign that people liked what they were hearing.

But little could beat the fan who showed up at Richie McDonald's meet-and-greet. "Lonestar" was tattooed along the side of her foot and she had five song titles tatooed across other body parts, he said.

"She's been following us since she was 10 or 12," he said, and a boyfriend even proposed to her during an earlier Lonestar concert. Now 22, she caught up with her favorite country singer, telling him that she turned that proposal down but was happily married to someone else.

"She's a true fan."

Friday, April 23, 2010

Several students currently attending Texas colleges are funding their higher educations in part with money raised for scholarships at the Lubbock Independent School District's annual Evening of the Arts concerts.  April 23rd's concert at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center is the fourth one.

The Evening of the Arts is one of the biggest musical events of the year for the school district. The show featured a variety of talent, including an appearance by recording artist Richie McDonald, former lead singer with the band Lonestar.

Every dollar spent on the tickets went toward scholarships for LISD graduates who study music or art education at Texas colleges or universities, said Robert Rumph, the school district's director of fine arts.

"The goal is for them to come back to Lubbock to teach," he said.

The concert spotlighted performers from all four LISD high schools and rotational representation from middle schools and elementary schools, Rumph said. The time limitations of producing a 90-minute show prevents featuring students from every school in the district every year.

Graduates from all four LISD high schools have benefited from the scholarships and are currently attending Texas Tech. Wayland Baptist University, South Plains College and West Texas A&M University, Rumph said.

McDonald, who sang two songs at the Evening of the Arts, also performed at a Saturday concert that benefited the same scholarship fund.

The CH Foundation, the Helen Jones Foundation and individual donors have also contributed to the scholarship fund, he said. Altogether $23,000 has been raised over the years, he said.

"We get some outstanding support from the community," he said.

Rumph said the money raised from a silent auction at the concert also went to the scholarship fund, he said.

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  Country artist MARK CHESNUTT has announced that he will tour with RICHIE McDONALD & TRACY LAWRENCE’s “Country Rat Pack” tour for select dates this SPRING and SUMMER. CHESNUTT will perform with the tour for five shows beginning APRIL 3rd in FT. PIERCE, FL. He will also join the tour for stops in OCEAN CITY, MD on MAY 7th, NORTH BEND, OR on MAY 28th, COLUMBUS, GA on JULY 17th and WEBSTER, MA on AUGUST 15th. 

  CHESNUTT was added to the tour after Country artist TRACY BYRD revealed that he would no longer be a part of the tour. 

  CHESNUTT said: “TRACY BYRD is a very good friend of mine so when they called asking if I could fill in, there was absolutely no hesitation from me; I said yes. Being a ‘Rat Packer’ gives me a chance to reunite with my old Roadhouse buddy TRACY LAWRENCE and I've always respected RICHIE McDONALD. I just can’t wait.”

Since the earthquake hit Haiti in January, World Help has been working around the clock to provide basic needs to thousands whose lives have been devastated by the quake.

We have seen an incredible response to this catastrophe and in appreciation for what our donors have done, we created a music video using footage and photos from Haiti and put them to the song that Richie recorded with the Children of the World, “Blessed are the Hands.”

Our prayer is that this video will touch the hearts of those who have given and prayed for Haiti.

We are challenging individuals to continue to pray for Haiti and the restoration that is taking place. 

Click here to see how "Blessed Are The Hands"  is helping!