ASHLAND — There’s good news and better news.
The good news is the Oak Ridge Boys are on their way here.
The even better news is that you don’t have to sweat it out at one of our fine fairs to see them.
The legendary gospel-grown country group that’s been a staple at the Ohio State Fair for decades is making its first appearance Friday night as part of the Kentucky Music Trail at the Paramount Arts Center in Ashland. The concert will start at 8 p.m.
Tickets are $35, $30, $25 and $10.
Kicked off this spring with a concert by Grammy Award-winning country grasser Ricky Skaggs, the Kentucky Music Trail mainly focuses on the rich, long-line of country artists such as Skaggs, Loretta Lynn, The Judds and so many others that hail from along The Country Music Highway in Eastern Kentucky.
However, the series also began giving a proverbial tip of the hat to the Trailblazers, the generations of country music performers from Sawyer Brown and Ray Price to the Oaks, who have made a distinctive stamp on the industry.
Known for their four-part harmonies and upbeat songs, The Oak Ridge Boys have more than three decades of performing, sold more than 30 million records, spawned dozens of country hits, a No. 1 pop smash (”Elvira”) and along the way chalked up a healthy shelf of Grammy, Dove, CMA, and ACM awards.
The Oaks represent a tradition that dates back to the Oak Ridge Quartet that started in 1943 and that first appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in 1945. By the mid-1950s the group was featured in Time magazine as one of the top drawing Gospel groups in the nation.
Although more than 30 members had came and went by the late 1960s, the group began to take off to new heights when the group already featuring Duane Allen and William Lee Golden, added Joe Bonsall and Richard Sterban in the early 1970s.
“Those who came to Country music with or after the New Traditionalists of the mid-eighties cannot possibly imagine the impact the Oaks had in 1977, when they lit up the sky from horizon to horizon with Y’All Come Back Saloon,” said Billboard’s Ed Morris in a release.
Within a year, Paul Simon would tap them to sing backup for his hit Slip Slidin’ Away, and they would go on to record with George Jones, Brenda Lee, Johnny Cash, Roy Rogers, Billy Ray Cyrus, Bill Monroe, Ray Charles and others.
They would appear before four presidents; produce one of the first Country music videos (Easy, in 1977, which wasn’t released in the U.S. but hit #3 in Australia); take part in the first headline tour of the USSR; and become one of the most enduringly successful, touring groups anywhere.
Their string of hits includes the pop chart-topper “Elvira,” as well as “Bobbie Sue,” “Dream On,” “Thank God For Kids,” “American Made,” “I Guess It Never Hurts To Hurt Sometimes,” “Fancy Free,” “Gonna Take A Lot Of River” and many others.
They've scored 12 gold, three platinum, and one double platinum album, plus one double platinum single, and had more than a dozen national Number One singles and more than 30 Top Ten hits.
Although Steve Sanders, the band’s guitarist, replaced William Lee as the baritone singer from 1987 to 1995, Golden has been with the band ever since.
The Oaks’ high-energy stage show remains the heart and soul of what they do, and they refine it several times a year, striving to keep it fresh well into the future.
“We‘re not willing to rest on our laurels,” Golden said in a release. “That gets boring.
As a group, we do things constantly to challenge ourselves, to try to do something different or better than the last time we did it.”
“I feel like I can do what I do on stage just as good now as I could 20 years ago,” says Bonsall. “In fact, if anything, I’m in better shape now than I was 20 years ago. I plan to be rockin’ my tail off out there as long as I’m healthy and don’t look stupid doing it. The people who come out, who bring their families to see us, deserve everything I’ve got.”
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