Doors
Open at 5 Music starts at 6 John Conlee goes on at 7
$5O VIP Met an Greet $35
VIP Special seating $25 General Admission
Tickets: 1-800-965-9324 www.itickets.com Craft Connection Gift Shop 10 street
West Side, Fairmont WV
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One of the most respected
vocalists to emerge during the urban cowboy era, John Conlee was known for his superb taste in material and his distinctively melancholy voice. Conlee
was born and raised on a tobacco farm in Versailles, KY, in 1946, and
took up the guitar as a child, performing on local radio at age ten. He
went on to sing with the town barbershop chorus, but didn't initially
pursue music as a career, instead becoming a licensed mortician. He also
worked as a disc jockey at numerous area radio stations, and made
important industry connections via that area when he moved to Nashville
in 1971. Five years later, Conlee's
demo tape got him a contract with ABC. He released a few singles, but
didn't find acceptance until 1978's "Rose Colored Glasses," a song he'd
co-written with a newsman at his radio station, rocketed into the
country Top Five. Conlee spent the next decade or so scoring hit after hit, nearly all of them helmed by producer Bud Logan.
He had two number ones in 1979 alone -- "Lady Lay Down" and "Backside
of Thirty" -- and four number two hits through 1981, which included
"Before My Time," "Friday Night Blues," "She Can't Say That Anymore,"
and "Miss Emily's Picture." Conlee
returned to the top of the charts three times over 1983-1984 with
"Common Man," "I'm Only in It for the Love," and "In My Eyes," and had
his last number one in 1986 with "Got My Heart Set on You." All told, Conlee
made the Top Ten 19 times through 1987, when he moved from MCA to
Columbia and reached the Top Five with "Domestic Life." Never much for
touring, Conlee
subsequently curtailed his recording activities as well, instead
devoting his time to charity work (often on behalf of American farmers),
raising his family, and running his own farm outside Nashville.
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