Ron Hawking finally offers songs from his own heart

It has taken a very long time, but veteran Chicago singer Ron Hawking finally has found his own voice.

Having enjoyed considerable commercial success over the years paying tribute to Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Bobby Darin and other icons of his youth, Hawking belatedly has placed the spotlight where it belongs: on him.

"Ron Hawking Sings ‘One from the Heart,' " his new show at Davenport's, proves what some listeners long have suspected: Hawking doesn't need to do impersonations of a soused Dean Martin or a bewigged Willie Nelson or, Lord help us, a swaying, sun-glasses-wearing Ray Charles. Nor need Hawking build evening-length celebrations of other singer's work.

Hawking's light baritone, stylistic versatility and easygoing manner are worth savoring in their own right, as he demonstrated Saturday evening.

How many other singers of the non-rock persuasion, after all, can prove equally convincing in music of Irving Berlin and Billy Joel, jazz-tinged cabaret and Italian opera? How many can find something new to say in work that artists as far-flung as Mel Torme and Andrea Bocelli have branded their own?

Though virtually all the songs in "One from the Heart" have been recorded by numerous stars, Hawking's versions often persuaded listeners to forget them – at least for as long as he was singing.

It takes a bold soul to perform Bocelli's signature hit, the ubiquitous "Con Te Partiro," particularly in a room as intimate – and vocally revealing – as Davenport's. But there Hawking stood, stage center, accompanied only by pianist Mark Burnell, caressing the operatic lines with care and conviction. His sound never will fill La Scala, but its warmth and suppleness were more than enough for Chicago's top cabaret.

If Hawking still finds himself performing Sinatra standards, he cannot be fully blamed: That's the fate of practically any male who addresses the classic American song repertoire of the mid-20th Century. Sinatra simply recorded practically everything, much of it definitively.

Yet when Hawking sings this repertoire in his own show – rather than in a concert-length salute to Sinatra – he ventures further from Ol' Blue Eyes' classics than ever. The coy attitude Hawking brought to "The Best Is Yet to Come," the nice-and-easy tempo he took on "I Get a Kick Out of You" and the unconventional phrasings he found in "The Way You Look Tonight" were pure Hawking, no one else.

And who knew Hawking could express such a jazz sensibility, and so keen a lyric interpretation, in the profound but tricky "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most"? Jazz rhythm drove Hawking's version of Joel's "New York State of Mind," as well, the approach elegantly suiting the material.

If Hawking's smart, he'll view this show as the start of the next chapter of his career: Hawking sings Hawking.

hreich@tribune.com

"Ron Hawking Sings ‘One from the Heart' "

When: 8 p.m. Saturday and Feb. 20

Where: Davenport's, 1383 N. Milwaukee Ave.

Admission: $35; 773-278-1830

Disclaimer: Clicking on the green links will direct you to a third-party Web site. Bloggers and staff writers are in no way affiliated with these links that are placed by an e-commerce specialist only after stories and posts have been published.