Elvis & Willie & Johnny Cash & RON LEONE

--- Mike Greenblatt - Modern Screen's Country Music Magazine

A tape found itself to my office the other day. Not knowing what it was, I casually slipped it into my player. The soothing voice of Elvis Presley accosted my ears. I figured a friend, knowing my love for The King, made me a tape. Nice. But then the next track was another of my favorite singers, Dean Martin (who recorded six wonderful country albums during his incredible career). Then came Willie Nelson. And Johnny Cash. I stopped what I was doing. Before the tape was done, I had heard Bobby Darin, Tony Bennett, Louis Armstrong and one of the best Frank Sinatras you're ever likely to run across.Yeah, by now you've probably guessed it was all the same guy.

Ron Leone.

This incredible vocal stylist has mastered a particular art form that, well, let's just say the amount of respect it merits is somewhere a notch above karaoke. But Ron Leone is no impersonator. We're talkin' Vocal Impressionist here. It may be splitting hairs to harp on the semantics of it all, but, I gotta tell ya, this guy's amazing.

In his myriad of voices, backed by pick-up combos or orchestras, his warm rich vibrato is a friendly call. Those aforementioned styles he borrows so brilliantly are also a part of his popular stand-up comedy routine. Yeah, he's also funny. And what's funny about that is that this is no joke. When he "becomes" these artists, he's as serious as a twister demolishing a small town. He, for all intents and purposes, IS those artists when he's singing them. He even starts to look like each artist. (And that could be tough when it comes to Willie Nelson).

It's been 20 years and counting for Ron Leone. He's no millionaire. It's the love of the music that keeps him going from stage to stage in town after town. And if it wasn't for his family and friends who keep telling him to finally go into a recording studio and make an album, he may have been content to perform live for people his whole life.

Until now.

When we last heard from Ron Leone, he was hard at work in a recording studio. Reportedly, the studio technicians overhearing his Sinatra one night, almost had heart attacks. They thought "0l' Blue Eyes" had risen from the grave. Leone has put all of his masterful conceptions into a CD, which should be available soon. Backed by sumptuous orchestral swells, his famous characters come to such life, that besides grooving to the sound, the fun is playing it for others. (I have a Johnny Cash freak friend who claims he knows The Man In Black's voice right down to its tiniest inflection. I intend to win me some money.)

Ron Leone started in a comedic doo-wop a cappella act called Egg Cream Revival on the East Coast. Patrons at such establishments as New York City's The Bottom Line, Caroline's, The Comic Strip, Catch A Rising Star and The Improv were seen jaw agape when amidst the laughs, Leone would play it for musically real. Ditto for crowds in the Catskills and Poconos.

You gotta be an actor to do this right. And he is. A seasoned repertory theatre stud, he's also gone Hollywood for the upcoming feature film, The Yards with James Caan and Mark Wahlberg.

But it's the music that he keeps coming back to.

"Music to me is the air that I breathe," he intones with seriousness. "I have incredible love and respect for creative artists, especially musicians and songwriters."

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