Ronny Cox & Friends at The Mainstay, Oct. 30

Ronny Cox, a singer and songwriter who is also an actor, will appear at the Mainstay in Rock Hall, MD at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday October 30. Admission is $20. He will be backed by Radoslav Lorkovic on accordion and keyboards and T. Bruce Bowers on fiddle & mandolin.

Ronny Cox

If Ronny Cox looks a little familiar it’s because he is a Hollywood actor known for playing the villain in films like “RoboCop” and “Total Recall.” He was also guitar player in “Deliverance,” his first role before a camera. Perhaps better known as an actor, he devotes about half of his time to his craft as a singer and songwriter traveling the country performing in clubs, performing arts centers and festivals.

As a singer-songwriter, he is a study in unforced charisma. He may wear a variety of hats, but if there is one common thread that pulls it all together it’s the “real” person that wears each hat and the warmth his craft brings to the audience. His musical style is eclectic and he confesses that he has no set-in-stone criteria for picking or writing songs. “I enjoy all kinds of music and I try to bring that eclectic approach to the music I play,” Cox says. “I’m interested in weaving a tapestry of songs and stories with an over-all arc that eventually comes together and tells us something about ‘the human condition’. I know that sounds kinda pompous… but that’s what I’m trying to do….. and to have a few laughs along the way.”

Cox grew up in New Mexico listening to Texas Swing tunes, but then played rock & roll in high school, and was eventually drawn to folk music after graduating from college. His music is a smart mix of witty ditties, bluesy swing tunes, heart-on-sleeve romances, and real-life anthems. His craft as a singer/songwriter is a testament to his life on the Southwestern desert. The third of five children and a father to two sons of his own, he combines his experiences and his expansive view of life into a magnetic, likeable, onstage persona.

With a career that spans over a hundred and twenty-five films and television shows, Ronny Cox is often ironically identified with the villains he has played in movies like “Total Recall” and “Robocop” and the ruthless politician in the hit science fiction TV series “Stargate.” But music was always a part of his life.… his first time acting in front of a camera was as the guitarist in the famous “dueling banjos” scene in “Deliverance.” His second big film was “Bound for Glory,” Hal Ashby’s film about Woody Guthrie. The truth is that Cox has been writing songs and telling stories for over four decades. It is only in the last 15 years that the world seen him evolve from being an “actor who sings” into knowing him as a “singer who happens to have a pretty fair career acting.”

His first album, titled “Ronny Cox,” was released in 1993 for Mercury Records in Nashville and, according to Cox, was “pretty much a country record –– at least it seemed so to me.” For his next album, “Acoustic Eclectricity,” (2000) he wanted a more “folkie” approach, so he turned to his son, John, to produce it. “Cowboy Savant” (2002) was a studio album produced by Wendy Waldman and his next two albums, “Ronny Cox Live” (2004) and “At the Sebastiani” (2006), were recorded live with almost no over dubs or corrections, “The idea was to capture that spontaneous magic, to give people a real sense of what we do in a live performance.”

For his next release, in 2007 his friend, producer and musician Jack Williams encouraged Cox do a tribute album to the great Mickey Newbury, one of the great Texas songwriters. “How I Love Them Old Songs” (2007) was dedicated to his wife Mary and re-released in February of 2010. He met Mary when he was 14 and she was his only love. Mary Cox passed away in 2006, 50 years to the day of their first date. He often talks about her in performance and confesses that one of the ways he has dealt her loss has been through his music.

His most recent recording, “Ronny Cox – Songs with Repercussions,” is a personal studio collection of songs that are mostly selected from other sources with three originals. Cox says, “The truly great thing about music is that it’s like a double-edged sword. Songs can be frivolous or sad but they can trigger an almost overwhelming emotion… immediately. What I have found is that if I open up to my audience, they not only accept that, they also help me get through it. It is that sharing… of silliness, or sadness… or mutual understanding that I find to be very compelling.”

Like Cox, the songs are eclectic, funny, touching, insightful and compelling. Each tune showcases an original, sophisticated lyric-driven sound and the stories that accompany these song are something else entirely. “The songs that I write and choose reflect that I pride myself in being able to find great songs and record them, not as covers, but as extensions of what I do as a performer.”

The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street. For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. More information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.