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2006 Best Country Music Performer 30.13% Renegade *
Others with Votes (more than one):
* On the ballot |
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Fort Wayne's country music fans have a bit of a chore in seeking out their entertainment, but country fans are diehard and will stick with their favorites through the tough times. John Curran of Renegade, this year's winner of the Best County Performer Whammy, knows this to be a fact. Renegade was originally formed in 1997 and released their first album, The Outlaw, in 1999. The band changed its name to Dakota Sunrise in 2004 and released After The Sunrise under that name. The line-up has been relatively stable, with John Curran on lead vocals and guitar, Jack Martinez on guitar and vocals, Bryan Hitchcook on keyboards and vocals, Dallas McFarland on guitar and vocals, Matt Wood on bass and vocals and Aaron Wood on drums. Recent changes have brought the band back to using their original branding as Renegade. "Everybody said that no matter what we changed our name to we're still going to be considered Renegade," said Curran. "So we went ahead and changed the name back. Dallas McFarland was wanting to get things started on his own, and I was basically thinking of leaving the band at that time. I was thinking the name change would set them up. "We were Dakota Sunrise for about a year. The fans were just not happy with it. Our fan base dropped because nobody recognized us. They thought that Renegade was gone. We've been back as Renegade now for about the last eight months." Of course, Curran didn't leave the band. He's had to deal with some family issues, and the management end of the band was not being handled as well as it should have been. Curran has taken that back under control and now feels comfortable again with Renegade. "Since I've taken over, the response from club owners and everybody has been tremendous," he said. "Since we've been back as Renegade, we've had a lot better crowd response. A lot of people who used to come out and see us are starting to come back out because they think the old Renegade is back together after breaking up. It's been a good thing and a bad thing. "I'd like to make sure that the fans are aware that we really appreciate them sticking with us, even though we were trying to make changes and they didn't turn out the way we wanted. We really appreciate the people who have stuck with us, and the clubs who are pushing to continue working with the different country bands in the area. It's making it nice. We just want to say thank you to everybody, and to whatzup as well. They've helped a lot with advertising, and the Whammy Awards are a pretty cool thing. It's talked about a lot by all the musicians." After posing for the band's group photo with the Whammy, Curran seemed kind of surprised by the whole process. "This is the first time we showed up and won," he said. "We showed up one other time and we lost." (John DeGroff) |
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