Post by tcb on Oct 3, 2003 22:57:02 GMT -5
From the Dallas Morning News:
www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/100103dnovedawsonob.4b02c15b.html
Dallas singer Ronnie Dawson dead at 64
10:03 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 30, 2003
By THOR CHRISTENSEN / The Dallas Morning News
Dallas rock pioneer Ronnie Dawson, the "Blonde Bomber" who
enthralled fans at the Big D Jamboree in the '50s and Carnegie Hall in
the '90s, died at his East Dallas home Tuesday afternoon. He was 64.
He continued to sing after he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2002.
One of his last gigs was an emotional performance at the Rockabilly Rave
festival in England in February.
"Word had gotten out about my situation, and I could see people crying
even before I finished the show - I wasn't prepared for that," he
told The Dallas Morning News in May.
Fans and colleagues around the country had rallied to help the singer
pay his medical bills. In June, more than a dozen bands played a concert
in his honor at Dallas' Sons of Hermann Hall, and there were more
benefit shows in Chicago and his childhood hometown of Waxahachie.
Mr. Dawson never racked up a Top 40 single or a gold album, but he was
one of Dallas' first bona fide rock stars. As a lanky, burr-haired
teenager in the late '50s, the singer - then known as Ronnie D. - cut
a series of swaggering, influential tunes like "Action Packed" and
"I Make the Love." He had young girls squealing during his
Sportatorium performances at the Big D Jamboree, and he held his own
against fellow Big D acts like Elvis Presley.
Although soft-spoken in conversation, Mr. Dawson was famous for his
hellfire live performances in which he'd jump off the stage, run
through the audience and play his guitar standing atop a table. He said
he was inspired by watching his mom sing in the church choir.
"That's probably where I got a lot of what I do when I come on the
stage, because I take on this different persona. I've always been kind
of a shy person until I get in front of a crowd, and then something
clicks and I become this showman," he told The News in 1996.
"The stage really is his church," Dallas record producer David
Dennard said earlier this year. "He's not doing it for the glory.
He's doing it for the music. He's the real deal."
Just as Mr. Dawson's career was about to take off in 1959, the New
York-based Swan Records pulled its promotional support, and his first
shot at the big time disappeared. But he refused to give up.
He recast himself as an R&B artist named Snake Monroe, signed briefly
with Columbia Records, and then joined the local Western swing pioneers
the Light Crust Doughboys. In the '60s, he packed the Levee Club on
Mockingbird Lane with the Levee Singers, a folk act that glimpsed
national stardom by appearing on The Danny Kaye Show and The Jimmy Dean
Show.
After the Levee Singers broke up, he formed a country band, Steel Rail,
and later sang TV and radio jingles to pay the rent. Just when it looked
like his career was over, it took off again amid the rockabilly revival
of the mid-'80s: The New York band the Cramps had cut a new version of
Mr. Dawson's "Rockin' Bones," and record producers were suddenly
calling him back into the studio.
In the '90s, he played twice on Late Night With Conan O'Brien and
performed at New York's Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. Reviewing
the Carnegie Hall show in 1994, The New York Times called him "superb
. a guitar-toting answer to Jerry Lee Lewis."
"In the one sense, I thought I'd be [more] successful, but on the
other hand, it's been amazing. It's been a wonderful ride," he
said in May.
In 1996, after 50-some years of bachelorhood, he married Chris Davis, a
former singer he'd first met in the 1960s at the Levee Club. In recent
years, he had been semi-retired: He played the occasional rockabilly
festival, but his only regular gig was a daily 10-mile jog around the M
Streets and Lakewood.
www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/100103dnovedawsonob.4b02c15b.html
Dallas singer Ronnie Dawson dead at 64
10:03 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 30, 2003
By THOR CHRISTENSEN / The Dallas Morning News
Dallas rock pioneer Ronnie Dawson, the "Blonde Bomber" who
enthralled fans at the Big D Jamboree in the '50s and Carnegie Hall in
the '90s, died at his East Dallas home Tuesday afternoon. He was 64.
He continued to sing after he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2002.
One of his last gigs was an emotional performance at the Rockabilly Rave
festival in England in February.
"Word had gotten out about my situation, and I could see people crying
even before I finished the show - I wasn't prepared for that," he
told The Dallas Morning News in May.
Fans and colleagues around the country had rallied to help the singer
pay his medical bills. In June, more than a dozen bands played a concert
in his honor at Dallas' Sons of Hermann Hall, and there were more
benefit shows in Chicago and his childhood hometown of Waxahachie.
Mr. Dawson never racked up a Top 40 single or a gold album, but he was
one of Dallas' first bona fide rock stars. As a lanky, burr-haired
teenager in the late '50s, the singer - then known as Ronnie D. - cut
a series of swaggering, influential tunes like "Action Packed" and
"I Make the Love." He had young girls squealing during his
Sportatorium performances at the Big D Jamboree, and he held his own
against fellow Big D acts like Elvis Presley.
Although soft-spoken in conversation, Mr. Dawson was famous for his
hellfire live performances in which he'd jump off the stage, run
through the audience and play his guitar standing atop a table. He said
he was inspired by watching his mom sing in the church choir.
"That's probably where I got a lot of what I do when I come on the
stage, because I take on this different persona. I've always been kind
of a shy person until I get in front of a crowd, and then something
clicks and I become this showman," he told The News in 1996.
"The stage really is his church," Dallas record producer David
Dennard said earlier this year. "He's not doing it for the glory.
He's doing it for the music. He's the real deal."
Just as Mr. Dawson's career was about to take off in 1959, the New
York-based Swan Records pulled its promotional support, and his first
shot at the big time disappeared. But he refused to give up.
He recast himself as an R&B artist named Snake Monroe, signed briefly
with Columbia Records, and then joined the local Western swing pioneers
the Light Crust Doughboys. In the '60s, he packed the Levee Club on
Mockingbird Lane with the Levee Singers, a folk act that glimpsed
national stardom by appearing on The Danny Kaye Show and The Jimmy Dean
Show.
After the Levee Singers broke up, he formed a country band, Steel Rail,
and later sang TV and radio jingles to pay the rent. Just when it looked
like his career was over, it took off again amid the rockabilly revival
of the mid-'80s: The New York band the Cramps had cut a new version of
Mr. Dawson's "Rockin' Bones," and record producers were suddenly
calling him back into the studio.
In the '90s, he played twice on Late Night With Conan O'Brien and
performed at New York's Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. Reviewing
the Carnegie Hall show in 1994, The New York Times called him "superb
. a guitar-toting answer to Jerry Lee Lewis."
"In the one sense, I thought I'd be [more] successful, but on the
other hand, it's been amazing. It's been a wonderful ride," he
said in May.
In 1996, after 50-some years of bachelorhood, he married Chris Davis, a
former singer he'd first met in the 1960s at the Levee Club. In recent
years, he had been semi-retired: He played the occasional rockabilly
festival, but his only regular gig was a daily 10-mile jog around the M
Streets and Lakewood.