Ricochet’s incessant touring keeps band bouncing along

By John Benson

The band has rolled with the punches when changes have been made.

Looking back and looking forward is what country act Ricochet is doing this summer with the release of its half greatest hits/half new material album “Ricochet Reloaded,” which is due out Tuesday.

“We finally rerecorded all the hits from the ’90s – ‘Daddy’s Money,’ ‘What Do I Know,’ ‘Love Is Stronger Than Pride,’ ‘He Left a Lot to Be Desired,’ ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ – and we added six new songs,” said bassist-singer Greg Cook, calling from Nashville. “All of it has to be vocally heavy for us to do it.

“The one new song I’d say that’s a big deal right now is ‘Keep You Loving Me.’ That’s getting the most buzz and it is probably going to be the lead single.”

For nearly a decade and a half, Ricochet has enjoyed quite a bit of buzz. Aside from numerous singles, including No. 1 hit “Daddy’s Money,” the Oklahoma act hit it big with its rich, textured version of “The Star Spangled Banner” in five-part harmony. The act is the first country band to ever chart the National Anthem on Billboard’s Top 40.

Mostly, Ricochet is known for its incessant touring schedule, which in recent years has included plenty of what Cook describes as memorable Ohio dates. The act returns to Ohio on Saturday at the Youngstown State University Summer Festival of the Arts.

“We’ve learned over the years that our job is to entertain people and that has evolved from our show being all of our stuff to a tribute to our influences, in an almost ‘American Idol’ style,” Cook said. “We do everything from The Doobie Brothers to Ray Charles to AC/DC.

“And our show has a couple of songs that were heavy on fiddle and when our fiddler left the band, we didn’t replace him, but we wanted to keep those songs, such as ‘Blink of the Eye,’ in the show. So we put a horn section in. Dwayne [Dupuy] and I both went to college playing horns and we just decided to switch off and play horns. So it’s very entertaining and high energy.”

Cook admitted there’s a certain wholesomeness that defines Ricochet’s sound and personality.

That is, the act doesn’t sing about drinking and rowdy behavior. Considering the band has appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” as well as headlined two USO tours for armed forces personnel and toured the world on its own, this recipe appears to be working for Ricochet.

Still, Cook is pragmatic when thinking about the band’s future.

“Like everybody else, I’m hoping we’d sell 100 million records and have 45 No. 1s, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen,” Cook said. “So I’d love to keep doing this for a long time. It’s a strange and difficult business that we’re in, and it’s hard to know what’s going to happen tomorrow no matter where you were yesterday.

“But we love what we do, and as long as that’s the case, we’re going to keep doing it. So the biggest thing is the fans keep coming to see us and we get to keep doing what we love for a living.”