WGAR and LCCC Present “GUITARS FOR GIRLS” at The Stocker Arts Center
WGAR radio presents a twist to the ninth season of its benefit concert for the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer research, as all of the country music stars are men. To recognize that fact the show – usually called “Girls With Guitars” – has been renamed “Guitars for Girls.”
It will be held at 7 p.m., Tuesday, October 27 at Lorain County Community College’s Stocker Arts Center. This year’s line-up of country singers features Richie McDonald, James Otto and Chuck Wicks.
The Komen Foundation began in 1982. Along with its affiliate network, the Komen Foundation has raised nearly $600 million for breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment. It is credited as the nation’s leading catalyst in the fight against breast cancer.
Tickets for this evening of great country music are now on sale at both the Stocker Arts Center box office and online. All tickets are reserved and are $35 each.
To order tickets, call the Stocker Center box office at 1-800-995-5222 (extension 4040), or direct at (440) 366-4040. Tickets may also be ordered online at www.lorainccc.edu/stocker.
WGAR, Cleveland Clinic, and Lorain County Community College sponsor Guitars For Girls.
About the Artists:
RICHIE McDONALD – Christian country singer and songwriter Richie McDonald was born in Lubbock, Texas, on February 6, 1962. He has long been recognized as one of the country’s best singers and one of music’s most accomplished and wide-ranging talents. A polished and engaging entertainer, he was the lead singer of Lonestar from 1992 to 2007. He was the focal point of the group’s storied touring career. Lonestar landed nearly 30 singles on the country charts during that time, many of which Richie McDonald wrote or co-wrote. He also co-wrote hits for other artists, including “She’s Always Right” for Clay Walker, “Coalmine” for Sara Evans, and “Once A Woman Gets A Hold of Your Heart” for Heartland. He has also written songs recorded by John Michael Montgomery, Billy Dean and the Wilkersons, among others. As one of the industry’s most successful songwriters, he has written some of the era’s most memorable songs and earned a mantle full of nominations and awards.
After a great deal of reflection, Richie left Lonestar in 2007 to launch his solo career. He felt that he had reached a crossroads in his personal and professional life, that it was time to slow down and spend more time with his family and yet keep being an artist. His hope is to make music that can really make a difference in people’s lives. He released a holiday album that year, “If Every Day Could Be Christmas,” and followed it up with the faith-based album “I Turn to You,” on Lucid Records in 2008, before beginning his current projects – including the release of “Six-Foot Teddybear,” an upbeat look at the way domestic life can soften the most seemingly hardened man. The song talks about the tough guy that clocks out of work at 5 p.m. and pulls into the driveway, sees his children and becomes a six-foot teddy bear. McDonald played a work tape of the song for Stroudavarious head James Stroud, who had signed him as one of the label’s keystone artists. Stroud thought that “Six-Foot Teddybear” was the song that could break through, McDonald says, and he and Stroud set about finishing the album he had begun with producer Tommy Lee James. The single hit the airwaves just weeks after it was recorded, and the album project, which spotlights both McDonald’s legendary way with a big ballad and his ability to relay the magic of family life, is due for a fall release.
The list of accomplishments Richie brings to his solo career is among country music’s most noteworthy. His was the voice behind songs like “Amazed,” “Smile” and “No News” and the pen behind songs like “My Front Porch Looking In” and “Let Them Be Little.” McDonald has earned six gold and platinum albums, several CMA and ACM awards as well as BMI awards for songwriting. In writing and singing “I’m Already There,” he was responsible for a song embraced so warmly by the military and their families it became an unofficial anthem for the U.S. Troops serving in the Middle East.
CHUCK WICKS grew up in Smyrna, Delaware, on the family farm. He immersed himself in a variety of music, from traditional country to R&B, and cites a diverse array of influences, among them Alan Jackson, Kenny Rogers and Brian McKnight. As much as he loved music, sports dominated his world, and he dreamed of being a professional baseball player. It wasn’t until his college years that he discovered his musical talents, and during his senior year at Florida Southern College, his desire to play music began eclipsing his athletic aspirations. After college, he made the move to Nashville in 2002 and began to pursue a career in music. He was soon writing close to 100 songs per year, one of which, “Stealing Cinderella,” caught the ears of the RCA label, and was well received when RCA serviced it to radio stations late in the summer of 2007. In September of that year, Chuck Wicks took part in the ill-fated reality TV show “Nashville,” which only aired two episodes before being cancelled by Fox. The cancellation may have actually helped Chuck, since he was now able to focus on promoting the single and making his debut at the Grand Ole Opry. By the late fall, “Stealing Cinderella” was becoming a staple for the father/daughter dance at weddings. It became a Top 5 debut single and his Top 15 follow-up hit was “All I Ever Wanted.” However, his success did not come over night. Chuck Wicks spent several years paying his dues by parking cars and writing songs, and apprenticed with some of the top songwriters on Music Row. That hard work is paying off and quite evident on “Starting Now,” Wicks’ RCA Nashville debut album, which showcases the depth of his artistry as a vocalist and songwriter. He wrote or co-wrote every song on the album but one. Chuck took his songs on the road in 2008, opening for Brad Paisley. During the Spring of 2009, he found a whole new audience of fans as a celebrity contestant paired with real-life girlfriend Julianne Hough on the ABC mega-hit “Dancing With the Stars.”
JAMES OTTO is a country singer and songwriter with a Southern rock sensibility. He was born into a military family at the Fort Lewis Army Base in Washington and grew up all over the United States including extended stays in North Dakota and Alabama. James started singing when he was only 4 years old and learned to play both the violin and saxophone before getting his first guitar at age 13. Both his father and grandfather were part-time musicians who played at local bars so music was prevalent in his life, but it wasn’t until he spent time with his mother in Sand Mountain, Alabama, that he discovered country music. After graduating from high school he did a two-year stint in the Navy and then moved to Nashville in 1998. He attended various songwriting nights at the clubs there and fell in with the so-called MuzikMafia, a group of songwriters and musicians that included Big and Rich and Gretchen Wilson, who became the central players in a CMT reality show called “MuzikMafia TV.” This landed him a record deal with Mercury Nashville and he released a few singles and an album in 2002,“Days of Our Lives,” before being dropped by the label in 2004. He rebounded by signing with Raybaw Records, a Warner Bros. imprint. His debut Warner Bros. Records release “Sunset Man” debuted at #3 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart, scored three singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and remained in the top 5 Country Albums chart for six weeks after its release in April 2008. James co-wrote nine of “Sunset Man’s” eleven tracks and co-produced the CD with Big & Rich’s John Rich and Rascal Flatts’ Jay DeMarcus. The album’s first single “Just Got Started Lovin’ You” was the most played single of 2008 at Country Radio and Billboard’s #1 Hot Country Song of 2008. The track was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Male Country Performance. James was also an ACM award-winner in the Song of the Year category as co-writer for Jamey Johnson’s “In Color,” a track that also earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Country Song. In addition, he was nominated in the Top New Male Vocalist category at the ACM Awards and in the New Artist of the Year category at the CMA Awards. “Sunset Man” has sold almost 400,000 copies. James Otto’s newest single is “Since You Brought It Up” from his upcoming album due from Warner Bros. Records Nashville this fall. The track is co-written by Otto, Rivers Rutherford and Dave Berg, and co-produced by Otto and Grammy Award-winning record producer and session guitarist Paul Worley (Big & Rich, Dixie Chicks).
More info can be found on www.lorainccc.edu/stocker.