Although Ronnie McDowell has appeared at the Northtown Opry when it was in it's previous location, this was the first time we'd had the opportunity to attend one of his shows. We throughly enjoyed ourselves and would recommend whole-heartedly that anyone who has the opportunity to take in one of his fun-packed evenings with not only great singing and music, but lots of rememberances and memories from his many years of touring.
Tonight's show began much differently that usual with young Karli Chayne being introduced by her father. At the tender age of 13, Karli has already signed a recording contract and released two CD's. Tonight, backed by her younger sister and a cousin, Karli sang some cuts from her albums and some original material as well, beginning with "It's Called Love," followed closely by "Little White Church," "Love At First Sight" and finished her set with a song she wrote "What Did I Get Myself Into." The audience gave Karli a warm round of applause as Kevin Jones & the Northtown Opry Band set up for their portion of the program. Byron Jones greeted everyone with a Ferlin Husky tune "I Could Sing All Night" and Carl Smith's "I Overlooked An Orchid" before introducing daughter-in-law Chastity Jones who did a bang-up job singing Barbara Mandrell's "Sleeping Single In A Double Bed" and a duet with Byron of a Dolly/Porter hit "Someone I Used To Know." Chastity returned later to sing Martina McBride's "Independence Day" and Merle Haggard's "I'm Always On A Mountain When I Fall." Fiddler Carl Cook got the feet tappin' with "Sugar Foot Rag" and the same can be said of keyboardist Stan Steel who sang and played Jerry Lee Lewis' "Whole Lotta Shakin." Drummer Darrin Chumley was up next with Brooks & Dunn's "Neon Moon" followed by bass guitarist Mike Bush with Merle's "If We Make It Through December." Lead guitarist and band leader Kevin Jones sang Tom T. Hall's "That's How I Got To Memphis" and Waylon Jennings' "Stop The World & Let Me Off" before Byron closed the first half of the show with Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues."
Lead guitarist Kevin Welch opened tonights festivities with a seasonal greeting of "Jingle Bell Rock", before Ronnie McDowell took center stage. Between 1979 and l986 almost every single released became a top 10 hit including the chart topper "Older Women". As a result of his many years of touring with mega star Conway Twitty, it was "Lay Me Down", the famous duet with Conway "It's Only Make Believe"(with Conway's actual voice piped in, for an added sense of reality). "The King is Gone", was next before he introduced his younger son Tyler Dean McDowell, who blessed us with some terrific vocal talents of his own singing Elvis Presleys "Viva Las Vegas" to the delight of the crowd. Ronnie returned to sing a medley of 40's songs "That Smile", "Crazy Love" and "You Are Mine At Last" before launching into 1981's "Watching Girls Go by" preceded his favorite Christmas song "White Christmas", Fats Domino's "Blue Berry Hill" and Elvis Presleys "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You".
Ronnie introduced his oldest son Ronnie Dean McDowell Jr., the group's drummer and he proved to be an outstanding musician performing one of the best versions of "Wipe Out" that we have heard. Next up was Phil Redmond the group's keyboard player performing "Hey Bartender" before Ronnie returned with his favorite gospel song "How Great Thou Art", Elvis Presleys "American Trilogy" followed by a duet with Byron Jones and the rest of the bad including Kevin McGurk on bass with "You Are My Sunshine". Ronnie then closed tonights outstanding performance of "Unchained Melody" from the sound track of the Patrick Swayze movie "Ghost". (Below) Ronnie McDowell with Karli Chayne.
