(Orlando FL) At a beautiful lakeside private residence affectionately known as Villa ConRoy, Ronny Cox put on a heart-warming acoustic performance for the Central Florida Folk Society (http://www.cffolk.org/).
On this lovely afternoon in downtown Orlando, Cox was coming straight from a previous performance in St. Petersburg and was running slightly behind his Orlando show start time. However, immediately upon arrival he quickly warmed up the room of about 60 attendees by going around to each guest, shaking their hands, and saying, 'Hi, I'm Ronny'. He took his seat and introduced the other 2 members of his trio: Bruce Bowers (violin) and Radoslav Lorkovic (keyboard and accordion).
Cox is best known for his roles as an actor in films such as 'Deliverance', 'Total Recall', 'Robocop', and the 'Beverly Hills Cop' series. He suspected that some of us were curious to know what it was like to be a famous actor, to which he humbly responded, 'I don't know', further stating that he is more often identified as a familiar face of someone from Des Moines. He stated he was once mistaken by a woman who thought that he was her gynecologist for the previous 14 years.
Throughout the afternoon, Cox filled musical intermissions with personal insights. For instance he informed us that he grew up in New Mexico and had thought that he had known everything about horses. He stated that he had watched a documentary about wild horses in New Mexico and learned that fowls born in the wild have 6 minutes to up and get going -- that they had to get into that safe place. Then he began playing his song 'Sanctuary'. A few songs later he spoke about his many travels during which he would the devastation from savage flooding as he sang how the 'muddy water's taken back my home.'
He was able to get the audience singing along with him as he opened with the lyrics 'when you're smiling the whole world smiles with you,' thus ending this first set of the afternoon.
I felt very drawn towards this very personable man. During his soundcheck he told the sound technician to turn down his microphone as he didn't like loud music and wanted the sound to be as acoustic as it could be. In fact, when he first spoke into the mic, he seemed startled when he heard his own voice boom through the speakers. In between sets, he came over to a group of us to sign autographs and take photographs. I was comfortably at ease amongst these unfamiliar faces of the Central Florida Folk Society, but their genuine hospitality coupled with Mr. Cox's soothing music quickly made me feel like I was very welcome and a part of this very close group.
Just when I thought that I couldn't possibly feel any more disarmed, Ronny Cox spoke to us about his late wife, Mary. He spoke very highly of her, citing her PhD from Georgetown and post doctoral pursuits. He affectionately recalled telling her that the secret to a wonderful, long lasting marriage was to 'marry up', to which she responded with 'what. All men do.' He stated that Mary had passed 7 years prior and had thought that 'things would have been easier by now' but 'it just wasn't', recalling how Mary had moved to his small town when she was 11 and he was just 14, further stating that he had known no other girlfriend or had gone on any other date outside of Mary in his life.
Ronny Cox put on a very heart-warming 2 sets of singing and guitar-playing. I would encourage others to listen to his music, and would strongly recommend to the Orlando community to check out one of these 'House Concert' series which occurs monthly and is one of Orlando's 'best kept secrets'.
On this lovely afternoon in downtown Orlando, Cox was coming straight from a previous performance in St. Petersburg and was running slightly behind his Orlando show start time. However, immediately upon arrival he quickly warmed up the room of about 60 attendees by going around to each guest, shaking their hands, and saying, 'Hi, I'm Ronny'. He took his seat and introduced the other 2 members of his trio: Bruce Bowers (violin) and Radoslav Lorkovic (keyboard and accordion).
Cox is best known for his roles as an actor in films such as 'Deliverance', 'Total Recall', 'Robocop', and the 'Beverly Hills Cop' series. He suspected that some of us were curious to know what it was like to be a famous actor, to which he humbly responded, 'I don't know', further stating that he is more often identified as a familiar face of someone from Des Moines. He stated he was once mistaken by a woman who thought that he was her gynecologist for the previous 14 years.
Throughout the afternoon, Cox filled musical intermissions with personal insights. For instance he informed us that he grew up in New Mexico and had thought that he had known everything about horses. He stated that he had watched a documentary about wild horses in New Mexico and learned that fowls born in the wild have 6 minutes to up and get going -- that they had to get into that safe place. Then he began playing his song 'Sanctuary'. A few songs later he spoke about his many travels during which he would the devastation from savage flooding as he sang how the 'muddy water's taken back my home.'
He was able to get the audience singing along with him as he opened with the lyrics 'when you're smiling the whole world smiles with you,' thus ending this first set of the afternoon.
I felt very drawn towards this very personable man. During his soundcheck he told the sound technician to turn down his microphone as he didn't like loud music and wanted the sound to be as acoustic as it could be. In fact, when he first spoke into the mic, he seemed startled when he heard his own voice boom through the speakers. In between sets, he came over to a group of us to sign autographs and take photographs. I was comfortably at ease amongst these unfamiliar faces of the Central Florida Folk Society, but their genuine hospitality coupled with Mr. Cox's soothing music quickly made me feel like I was very welcome and a part of this very close group.
Just when I thought that I couldn't possibly feel any more disarmed, Ronny Cox spoke to us about his late wife, Mary. He spoke very highly of her, citing her PhD from Georgetown and post doctoral pursuits. He affectionately recalled telling her that the secret to a wonderful, long lasting marriage was to 'marry up', to which she responded with 'what. All men do.' He stated that Mary had passed 7 years prior and had thought that 'things would have been easier by now' but 'it just wasn't', recalling how Mary had moved to his small town when she was 11 and he was just 14, further stating that he had known no other girlfriend or had gone on any other date outside of Mary in his life.
Ronny Cox put on a very heart-warming 2 sets of singing and guitar-playing. I would encourage others to listen to his music, and would strongly recommend to the Orlando community to check out one of these 'House Concert' series which occurs monthly and is one of Orlando's 'best kept secrets'.
