Friday, September 17
at 8 PM

Prices:
$  77.50 (Pit and Gold Circle)
$  52.50 (Orchestra and Balcony)
$  42.50 (Orchestra and Balcony)
$  32.50 (Balcony)


Purchase at ticketmaster.com

View seating chart

The Oak Ridge Boys is a country and gospel group that was founded in 1945 as the Oak Ridge Quartet. They became popular during the 1950s. Their name was changed to The Oak Ridge Boys in the early 1960s, and they remained a gospel-oriented group until the mid 1970s, when they changed their image and concentrated more on country and pop music. The band's current lineup consists of lead Duane Allen, baritone William Lee Golden, tenor Joe Bonsall, and bass Richard Sterban.

After opening a series of shows for Roy Clark, The Oak Ridge Boys moved in 1973 to the Columbia label, for whom they made three albums and several singles. They went from being one of the top acts on Heart Warming to nearly the bottom on Columbia in terms of promotion. Columbia did not service the gospel radio stations like Heart Warming did, leaving the impression that The Oak Ridge Boys were leaving gospel music, which hurt the group's popularity among its core fan demographic. While promoting the single "Heaven Bound," The Oak Ridge Boys made appearances on The Mike Douglas Show and The Merv Griffin Show, both nationally syndicated in the United States and Canada. In 1976, despite having been picked by Paul Simon to sing backup on "Slip Slidin' Away," the group asked to be released from its contract with Columbia after its single, "Family Reunion," was only a lukewarm success. Columbia complied with the request, and the band immediately made a live album that was a mix of gospel and country on their own label.

In 1977 The Oak Ridge Boys fully switched from gospel to country with the release of their first ABC Records (later absorbed by MCA) album, Y'all Come Back Saloon. Two songs from that album reached the top five on the country charts, and their next album, Room Service, in 1978, gave them two more, including their first #1 hit, "I'll Be True to You." The Oak Ridge Boys Have Arrived was released in 1979, and Together followed in 1980. A compilation album simply titled Greatest Hits, containing 10 singles from the previous four albums, was released in the fall of 1980.

The group's sixth album, Fancy Free, released early in 1981, contained the Dallas Frazier-penned song "Elvira." This remains the group's most widely known song, and Fancy Free is their best-selling album. "Elvira" had been recorded by other artists, including Frazier himself in the late 1960s and Kenny Rogers in 1970, but The Oak Ridge Boys were the first to have a hit with it. Their version of the song was a #1 country hit, and in July 1981 reached #5 on the pop charts.