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The Oak Ridge Boys performing
Sept. 9 at Lanierland Music Park
By Alton Bridge*
Staff Writer
The Oak Ridge Boys and David Lee Murphy are
coming to Lanierland Music Park Saturday Night,
Sept, 9. The concerts starts at 7:30 p.m.
The Oak Ridge Boys have been one of the more
popular groups to perform at Lanierland.
After a concert a few years ago, the Oak Ridge
Boys and members of their band were found in the
wee hours of the morning playing softball on a dia
mond that was on top of the nearby hill.
At this stage in their career, the Oak Ridge Boys
have garnered more musical achievements than
they’ve had hot dinners. Three decades of chart-top
ping hits, million-selling albums, an endless highway
of personal appearances and a permanent place in the
pantheon of country music would have lesser acts
looking into a well-earned beach front retirement
property.
Not so the Oaks.
These men are heading into the millennium full
throat ahead, riding what promises to be their
strongest album in years, “Voices”. The group has
once again teamed up with producer Ron Chancey
and created a collection of songs offering the tradi
tional sound of the Oaks that fans have loved for
year, combined with changes that prove the group is
still as vital as tomorrows headlines.
The group includes:
. . *Duane “Ace” Allen, a native of Taylortown,
Texas. Allen had formal training in both operatic and
quartet singing before becoming a member of the
Oaks in 1966. He is an avid basketball fan, shooting
hoops whenever he gets the chance as a means of
staying in shape. This year, he’s added walking 2O
to 30 miles each week to his physical regimen.
Duane is also an antique car buff with more than two
dozen classics in a collection housed in a museum
called “Ace On Wheels.”
“We just finished restoring a 1950 Harley,” he
said. “It’s a process I love I get a lot of pleasure
out of going down there with some of the guys from
the road, sanding and painting with no real sense of
uigency. It’s a great way to relax.”
Allen also loves to find new music for the Oaks;
several cuts on their newest album are songs he
brought to the table. His farm in Hendersonville,
Tenn, features a menagerie that includes Longhorn
cattle, horses, burros and Canada geese. A superb
businessman, he is credited with keeping the Oaks
on firm financial footing during their switch from
gospel to country in the late 70’s.
• Joe Bonsall Joe’s Philadelphia background
shows through clearly in his love of pro sports.
“I live and die with the Phillies, no matter where
they are. For me, 1993 was great; one of the high
lights was going home to Philadelphia and taking my
parents to two World Series games. That was so
cool,” he says.
Joe is the author of a children’s book series, “The
Molly Books,” published by Ideal’s Children’s
Books. He loves the water and can often be found on
his boat on the Cumberland River. Another passion
is his 350-acre farm, where he’s apt to be riding a
John Deere tractor on days off or feeding his don
keys, “Blondie” and “Truffles.”
As with the rest of the Oaks, though, much of
Joe’s time is spent on the road performing and he has
found his own way to get the maximum possible
enjoyment out of touring.
“My life is really pretty simple,” says the Oak
who’s the principal spokesman on stage. “I go out
there and try to sing the best I can and give them
physically and mentally every single thing I’ve got.
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The Oak Ridge Boys and David Lee Murphy
coming to Lanierland Music Park Saturday,
Sept. 9. at 7:30 p.m.
When it’s done 1 go back to my room, 1 call home, 1
eat my pizza, get on my Apple laptop, watch the
sports scores and say to myself, ‘Hey, I’ve done what
I’m supposed to be doin’ and I feel great about it.’”
• William Lee Golden One of the most recog
nizable faces in the entertainment industry,
“Mountain Man” William Lee Golden first joined the
Oaks in 1964. A farmer’s son from Brewton, Ala., he
made his professional singing debut at age 7 when
he and his sister, Lanette, performed gospel tunes on
his grandfather’s weekly radio show. His love of
music never abated. He sang with his high school’s
FFA quartet and soon formed a group of his own:
The Pilot’s Trio.
“1 have always thought that music has a healing
power,” he says. “No matter what you’re experienc
ing, there is a melody that will help you through the
moment.” Golden’s fascination and knowledge of the
native American way of life has earned him respect
and recognition from American Indians as well as
members of the Mountain Man Association. He has
been honored with many awards, including Celebrity
of the Year in 1994 by the Indian Exposition of
Anadarko, Okla., which is made up of 15 tribes
across the nation, as well as an acclaimation from the
Cherokee tribe.
• Richard Sterban Sterban began his singing
career as a 6-year-old soprano in Sunday school in
his native Camden, N.J. He was a tenor in the glee
club in seventh grade, but when he came back that
fall for eighth grade, he was a bass.
He loved sports and music, decided he had more
talent for the latter, and developed a simple goal: “I
wanted to be in the best vocal group in the world.”
Before joining the Oaks, Richard sang in various
groups, most notably backing Elvis Presley as a
member of “The Stamps.”
Baseball has always been a passion. For many
years he has been an owner of the Nashville Sounds,
a Pittsburgh Pirates AAA club, attending spring
training, even taking bus trips with the team. His
well-tailored looks reveal one of his other loves.
“When I was singing part-time and working in a
clothing store, I developed a real interest in fashion,
and it’s something that has carried through,” he says.
Richard enjoys fine restaurants, collecting wine, and
traveling particularly to the seashore, where he
enjoys sailing and snorkeling. A fitness buff, he has
bicycles in both his residences Nashville and
Atlantic City keeps another stowed in a bay under
the tour bus and even has a case for one so that he
can check it aboard airplanes.
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COMMUNITY LIVING
proMteoio Bum
Murphy is a classic overnight success story
David Lee Murphy’s records have an extra kick
that makes him instantly identifiable in a crowd of
new country artists. Call it a driving rhythm or a no
nonsense attitude or a willingness to push the enve
lope - it’s an element of his artistry that has pro
duced some of the biggest hit singles of 1995 and
1996, and it’s there on his new MCA album, “We
Can’t All Be Angels.”
Murphy knows exactly how to describe the
music of “We Can’t All Be Angels.” “It’s a rockin’
record,” he says. “Mentally, it’s the country mes
sage, but as far as the framework goes, it’s got a
rockin’ feel to it.” “Dust on the Bottle” did, too.,
All my records have been more rockin’ than nor
mal for Nashville. I like to record, music that we’re
able to really crank up and rock on live.”
For “We Can’t All Be Angels" Murphy once
again teamed up with Nashville’s top producer,
Tony Brown. “I can’t talk enough about Tony,”
Murphy says. “He’s one of those people who
brings out the more creative side of an artist. He's
musically in tune. He picks up things in a second
that other people will have to listen to over and
over. He lets me be me, and he encourages me to
stretch out and go out of the boundaries.
As a former struggling songwriter, Murphy felt
at home in a studio from the very beginning of his
career as a recording artist. “Since 1983, when it
was a big deal to go in and make demos, going into
the studio was fun,” he explains. “When you write
the songs, you just want to go in there and make
them come to life. From all those years of making
demos and writing songs, I just learned how to
make records. You have to when you’re a song
writer because you don’t have a producer telling
you what you need to do. It’s survival of the
fittest.”
Another key element to Murphy’s appeal is that
his records have a unique personality David
Lee Murphy’s personality. “I think part of what
makes my records stand apart,” he explains, ‘“is
that I make the arrangements, I play acoustic gui
tar, I sing, I do the background vocals and I write
the songs.
Murphy's individuality comes through the
strongest on love songs. The first single from “We
Can’t All Be Angels,” “All Lit Up In Love,” is a
case in point, with its smooth chorus contrasting
with a lyric about seeing an ex-lover being “lit up”
by someone else. Even the tender expression of
love in the ballad “Almost Like Being There” car
ries an edge of pain and loneliness. With Murphy,
the power of love when it’s going right puts a pow
erful edge on the music, as in “I Could Believe
Anything.” The concept of “She Don’t Try (To
Make Me Love Her)” may be the ultimate in love
and respect, but where some artists might be driven
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to tears, Murphy is I
driven to rock and
rock hard.
Murphy’s talent as
a songwriter gives
“We Can’t All Be
Angels” an extra
degree of depth and
variety. He is equally
at home singing a
haunting duet with
himself on “Velvet
Lies” or having fun
with the rockabilly
flavored “Kentucky
Girl.” He talks like one
who’s been there when he gives the advice “Just
Don’t Wait Around Til She’s Leavin’.” He moves
easily from the urgent shuffle beat of “Bringin’ Her
Back” to the troubled, unsettling feel of “That’s
Behind Me” to the moody depression of “She’s Not
Mine.” And if anyone wonders why he doesn’t sing
a sweet song now and then, he seems to provide an
unapologetic answer in “We Can’t All Be Angels.”
David Lee Murphy is a classic 10-year
overnight success story. He arrived in Nashville in
1983 from Herrin, Illinois, intent on establishing
himself as a songwriter so he could have a solid
source of material as an artist. He had some suc
cess as a writer, with cuts by Reba McEntire,
Dobie Gray, and Doug Stone, but most of the time
he struggled, traveling around the southeast
fronting a honky tonk band and staying true to
David Lee Murphy.
“I was just a struggling, flat-broke songwriter,”
he recalls, “but living that lifestyle was doing what
I wanted to do. Even when I didn’t make much
money I was happy because I was working toward
something.”
Finally, in the fall of 1994, Tony Brown picked
Murphy’s song “‘Just Once” off a demo tape and
put it on the soundtrack of 8 Seconds (the film star
ring Luke Perry as bull-riding champion Lane
Frost). “Just Once” hit, and Murphy went into the
studio with Brown to record his first CD “Out With
a Bang.” By the end of 1995 Murphy’s “Party
Crowd” was the most-played song of the year and
“Dust on the Bottle” was his first No. 1. In the
meantime, Out With a Bang became the best sell
ing debut album by any male artist in 1995. “Every
time I Get Around You” and “The Road You Leave
Behind” continued his string of hits.
With “We Can’t All Be Angels,” David Lee
Murphy continues to put a rockin’ edge on country
music. With strong songs and inspired perfor
mances, he has become one of the most important
new artists in country music.
y Murphy
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