Ron Antonio: Wiser this time

As former lead singer of the group Wiseguys, he was just well, one of the guys performing in various venues and making the ladies swoon with his cool voice and good looks. But when he left the group in 2000 to chart his own path, Ron Antonio was never the same again. He became his own man.

No longer did he put his style in the background and tailor-made it to suit the group’s (he has no regrets though).

This time, Ron has developed his style, his own identity. It’s about time. Unlike other instant performers, Ron paid his dues as a singer by sharing the stage with Kuh Ledesma, Regine Velasquez, Martin Nievera, Lani Misalucha and Jaya, doing the rounds of bars, hosting shows and guesting on TV programs. Ron’s style is a heady musical brew of everything and anything except metal rock. And Ron is mighty proud of it.

Ron learned he can shift from classic to pop, rock to standards and R&B to gospel with ease. He became more comfortable with his own style – not a packaged image from some starmaker’s worn-out formula. What you see is what you get, thank you.

Sure, he got a manager. But the guy focuses on Ron alone, and no other artist. The personal touch allows Ron to package himself the way he wants to, not in the way some image builder well-versed in media hype does.

His first major concert, Wiser, on Aug. 12, 9 p.m. at Music Museum, reflects not just Ron the artist, but the person who marches to his own drummer. He himself chose the repertoire, and even outlined the script.

"I don’t want anybody to put words into my mouth, so I might as well do it myself," asserts Ron.

Even the title, Wiser, is a personal statement. "It shows how I’ve become my own person, " the singer with the Spanish mestizo looks explains.

That long haul-journey to self-discovery will unfold in the show, which will showcase Ron’s music from the time he started singing church and gospel music as a boy, to his stint with the Wiseguys, up to the time Ron branched out to other fields: commercial modeling and recording (first, for Ivory Records, and then for XAX Music Entertainment).

Ron is not alone in this bold bid for solo recognition. Friends Nyoy Volante, Ella May Saison , Faith Cuneta, Wiseguys bandmate Juaquin and 2003 Aliw awardee Miguel Aguila are performing gratis. Backing Ron up his seven-piece band, Ron Rocks Band.

After cutting his teeth in the music scene here and abroad, Ron’s acid test as solo performer has finally come.