5.03.2009
Ronnie Prophet
Ronnie Prophet s/t LP (Art, 196?)
Ronnie Prophet has been around a long time. After starting his career in his native Canada, he trucked around upstate New York, Florida, and the Bahamas, working up a country music/guitar instrumental/comedy lounge act. He took it to Nashville and played a year at Boots Randolph's club, and then bought the place and held court for 16 years. His exposure to Nashville's music heavies lead to touring gigs backing George Jones, Kenny Rogers, and others. After Nashville he moved back up to Canada where he became a television staple, hosting a series of country music shows, ending with his "Ronnie Prophet Show", a mix of country and comedy. In the late '90s, he moved to Bramson, Missouri, a country music tourist destination - kinda a cross between Nashville, a State Fair, and a sanitized Reno. He opened up a theater with his wife Glory-Anne and has been tremendously successful. Among the country music hardcore he is known, among Canadian country music fans he is legend, but outside those worlds he isn't very well known. Too bad, though his comedy is a bit schmaltzy and his stage show is pretty slick, he is a hell of a guitarist. Influenced by Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, and Joe Maphis, he has a sound which alternates between blistering finger picking and full reverbed ballads. This record is his first, made when Prophet was a young man bopping between Florida and the Bahamas. Recorded at the Jolly Roger Hotel in Ft Lauderdale and the Jack Tar Grand Bahama Hotel, this is Prophet a little rawer than in his later years. The record has all the markings of one sold at his appearences and nowhere else. It is a combo of instrumentals, popular songs and ethnic joke tunes. Here are three songs off the album, two instumentals and a vocal number. Some of the guitar playing is exceptional and in "Malaguena" there are times in which the lickage is near heavy metal. Enjoy.
# posted by Scott Soriano : 19:34
