..Ronnie Canada major recording artiste was born in cleveland ohio in u.s.a. where he developed his talents like so many others from cleveland such as edwin starr the ojays bobby womack wild cherry the dazz band eric carmen don king steve harvey arsenio hall halle berry lou ragland just to mention a few so many to influence the talents of a dreamer who is trying to reach that star ronnie like the above mentioned left cleveland but before embarking on his travels he started out singing in local talent shows and singing on the corners of 83rd and central and on the corners of 83rd and quincy and at fairfax community center.
Ronnies big break started in 1972 when he was asked to be the roadie for a group who became a massive cult group the group is called S.O.U.L. sounds of unity and love who at the time was travelling and doing major shows at the legendary apollo theatre in harlem new york and travelling the chittlin curcuit all over america.
..Ronnies first big show with S.O.U.L. would be at the akron civic theartre where they were the opening act for bloodstone who at that time had a no1 hit record with natural high and S.O.U.L. also had two albums under it's belt the first album was called soul what is it and the second album was called can you feel it and both of these albums can be found today on ace records coming out of brighton england
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S.O.U.L. returned to the studio to record a record called this time around which put them in the number 16 catogory in jet magazine and right on magazines top 40 spot and this song has been sampled and was a major hit for phats and smalls who also used the original vocal of mr larry hancock and said that it was this guy name tony ronnie was in his hotel room about to travel on the road with the american drifters and saw fats and smalls performing the song not only was ronnie the roadie for S.O.U.L. he was also the sound technician engineer he did the light show and the hairdressing and drove when someone got tired and needed sleep so there was no fooling this mans ears he mixed their sound with such precision that everywhere they would travel someone from the other bands would come over and ask him how did he make these guys sound so good
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In 1973 bernard beloyd taylor joined the line up he later went on to write getaway for earth wind and fire and became a member of the group S.O.U.L.S original line up was lee lovette on bass guitar and vocals walter pee wee winston on lead guitar and vocals gus hawkins on saxaphone and flute and all woodwinds and larry hancock on vocals and with beloyd and larry it was like two stevie wonders and two donny hathaways in one group oh what a sound that helped ronnie to develop his vocal abilities it was defenentily on the job training
The first time ronnie ever flew on a plane was from memphis tennesee where soul had to rehearse in a club where all of the stax recording artist use to play the whos who of stax from otis redding sam and dave al green the soul children rufus and carla thomas and the agency who was booking that gig was tyre clarke and associates along with helen greer and dick griffey from the legendary solar records S.O.U.L. had to fly to miami along with ronnie to be the opening act for the jackson5ives i am love tour the line up on the show was opening act S.O.U.L. 25-30 min the second act was kool and the gang1hour the main event was the jackson5 2 hours and don cornelius from SOUL TRAIN was the master of ceromonles oh what an experience for a dreamer
S.O.U.L. had a no1 record in miami at that time with a song called the jonses pt1-pt2 the date of the gig was march 14th 1975 and the next 6 months soul rehearsed a whole new show and changed its style of music it became more of the sound that beloyd used with earth wind and fire and then the group decided to break up and go their seperate ways that really confused ronnie a bit so when the guys told him they were going to dispand they asked him what was he gonna do and he said that he was going to sing but none of them knew that he could sing and didnt take him serious in fact they thought that he was going crazy so ronnie was a bit dazed by the break up a bit depressed even and he put on a lot of weight and became more confused
One of the guys in the group got married and beloyd had returned from california to visit his family and went to the wedding and saw ronnie there and getaway had just been released by earth wind and fire it was playing constantly so beloyd asked ronnie are you alright you dont look to well ronnie didnt know that beloyd had become a vegatarian and a very strict one at that so beloyd invited ronnie to come to his mothers house to eat and that was the beginning of a new ronnie beloyd said to ronnie to come by everyday and eat with him and ronnie did and he too became a strict vegatarian
The fire was lit beloyd had to return to california because he had started produceing records alongside maurice white and verdine white he produced afterbach chaka khan and james ingram the mitchell sisters and he also played guitar with denise williams donald byrd and gary bartz and a string of other people so ronnie kept his diet going and then one day larry hancock came by to see ronnie and told him that he was starting a new group with the imperial wonders called truth and that the ojays was going to produce them and manage them and he asked ronnie would he come on board as the roadie and as the sound technician and ronnie said yes and started working with truth
This led to a performance at ohio state university with the legendary asford and simpson so ronnie was added to the ojays payroll all of his checks were paid to him from the ojays company it was called S.O.C.records it was the ojays label it was run by eddie levert walter williams and former ojay member bobby massey they were takeing truth on a 80 city tour and ronnie was excited about this but a silly little mishap happened and ronnie did'nt get to go and thats when ronnie got serious about singing himself .
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He went and joined crawford road christian church where he became a member of the choir as a lead vocalist and then the reverned of the church rev robert hubbard who had sang with a very popular gospel group called the raymond rassberry singers asked ronnie to be a part of a gospel group that he was putting together called the hubbard singers so ronnie joined them and they started fellow shipping at different churches and singing all over cleveland and they even traveled to washington d.c. to perform on a program along side the legendary grammy award winning mrs.albertina walker of the legendary caravan singers the group who shirley ceaser sang with.
They also sang along side of the rev. issac douglas who was very popular in the gospel world ronnie stayed at crawford road for quite a while and then one day he heard about an audition for actors singers and dancers at the internationaly known cleveland KARAMU HOUSE where some of the worlds biggWICKED ronnie had seen john wilson while he was rideing one day with leo green who was a member of the imperial wonders and truth and a former member of SLY SLICK AND WICKED ronnie had let john listen to a tape that he had recorded of himself singing in church live and thought nothing about it john was very impressed and he presented a contract that was originaly for polydor mercury midwest records so ronnie joined SLY SLICK AND WICKED who had already been well established in the buissness with a album on paramount records a album on motowns subsidiary label jupar records and they had been managed personaly by the godfather of soul himself MR.JAMES BROWN AND THE OJAYS and they had already been on soul train and the deal that was on offer was from MR.CARL MUDURI who had major world wide success and had won a grammy with wild cherry for play that funky music white boy.
They had the meeting with carl and the recording began it was ronnies first experience as a recording artist yes the first time in the recording studio as an artist but he had been in the studio with S.O.U.L. and the OJAYS and with the DAZZ BAND as session musicians for truth so he knew how to operate the first song was an uptempo song called i'm trying to side step the issue with ronnie singing the lead vocals it was never released the second song was a tony bennette song caller because of you with a big est actors and singers and dancers come from so one day he went for the auditions the auditions were being held by none other than the legendary MR.MIKE MALONE who had worked with such superstars as MRS.DEBBIE ALLEN OF FAME and AMIE GRANT and MR.HQ THOMPSON who scored the music and was also the piano player in barry whites love unlimited orchestra the name of the musical was called GREEN PASTURES SINGIN AND SHOUTIN it ran for one month ronnie was cast in the musical and became very interested in theartre and began to audition for dramas and more musicals
..One day ronnie went to karamu since he had now made it his hangout and second home watching all of the productions that were going on so mike malone called him over and told him that two guys had been there looking for him and said that they were signing a recording deal and that they wanted him to be a part of their group so mike gave ronnie the information that they had written down on paper and ronnie went to find out what was happening one of the guys who was looking for ronnie was larry hancocks brother charles hancock and john wilson from the group SLY SLICK AND disco arrangement with violens and bells it did'nt get released either and then CARL MUDURI was calling other writers to send songs for SLY SLICK AND WICKED there was one song that came from THOM BELL who wrote for the SPINNERS and THE STYLISTICS by a group called the FUTURES out of philidelphia and it was called PART TIME PARTY MAN SLY SLICK AND WICKED got the song well rehearsed and ronnie and scottie pittman sang a duo on that
CARL MUDURI didnt like it he didnt seem to like anything but he said were looking for something that will be a hit what exciteing words and then it came down to the song that was released a song that dunn pearson had recorded on the group four flights high out of chicago they used to be hanging around at the office at S.O.C.records ronnie scottie and john went out to beavers fall pennsylvania to suma studios it used to be in the heart of cleveland downtown euclid ave.everybody used to record there GRAND FUNK RAILROAD had most of its hits from there S.O.U.L. use to record there as well the owner and engineer was KEN HAMMOND and the record was recorded it was ALL I WANT IS YOU it was released on EPIC SWEET CITY RECORDS 1979 and today it's on EXPANSION RECORDS comeing out of london on a compilation called SOUL TOGETHERNESS 2005
..Ronnie and scottie left the group to form another group called package deal they rehearsed accapella for two years these guys were very tight harmonies like you never heard before they recorded two demos for the GUITAR player from SLY SLICK AND WICKED gregory smith and his writeing partner mario banks nothing really happened with package deal so hank ballard came to cleveland ohio to rehearse for a show that he was doing in pittsburgh at the stanley theatre and he needed a band and some background singers and package deal was working with a band called nueuclius so ronnie canada and the band went and performed in pittsburgh with hank oh what a big event it was a show that porky chedwick produced on the bill was charlie thomas and the drifters the flamingos the duprees arlene smith and the chantels and bo diddley the band members for hank and ronnie was from the ages of 17-18-19 years of age they played with so much fire they stole the show it was hank ballard and the midnighters night
..Ronnie left cleveland in the fall of 1981 he was flown to miami to sing with the legendary bluenotes from harold melvins group the members of the group was LAWRENCE Lloyd brown sr. B.K.A. larry brown and JOHN SWEET T. ATKINS two original bluenotes RONNIE CANADA MAX GOODY TONY SHARPE AND VALARIE ROUSE they worked as the bluenotes live on the miami beach strip and were recording an album under the name of CAVIAR with ronnie canada as the most featured lead vocalist they released one song from the album called never stop loveing you on survivor records 1982 and its on the internet selling for big bucks its a classic and RONNIE CANADA IS THE LEAD VOCALIST ON THIS RECORD RONNIE went on to sing with a group called OMARI who had a record out called AFTER LOVEING YOU on BOUND SOUND RECORDS out of miami also they were the backing band for the legendary MS BETTY WRIGHT who with this band RONNIE CANADA sang a live DUET with BETTY WRIGHT the legendary MR.ALI OLLIE WOODSON SANG with the bluenotes right before ronnie canada ali left the group in 1979 when ronnie was still with SLY SLICK AND WICKED so ronnie had two pair of shoes to fill THE LEGENDARY MR.TEDDY PENDERGRASS AND ALI OLLIE WOODSON
RONNIE ALSO WORKED with a group called the inkspots around miami with MR.FRANKIE SEEAY who also recorded for T.K.PRODUCTIONS and with FRANKIE RONNIE met all of the best and most famous musicians in miami K.C.and the SUNSHINE BAND the legendary WEATHER REPORT BASSIST and PRODUCER the late great mr. JACO PASSTORIUS and the cornelius brothers eugene wilde and two very good friends of RONNIES are DAVID HUDSON AND TIMMY THOMAS and RONNIE also knows JIMMY BO HORNE MICHEAL STERLING whos video RONNIE CANADA appeared in in 1987 THE GIRL IS CHEATING WHILE SHES WEARING MY RING which aired on B.E.T.and most of all the miami television channels.
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Professional photographs of Ronnie Canada by ©2008 New World Photography - www.newworldphotography.com - All photographs copyright protected.
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