OH BABY!
      Profile of Ken (Ken'R) Rupe

The need to be on stage and entertain may have started in a little country church in Glasgow, Kentucky, where his father was a minister and Ken sang with his mother and other older members of the Rupe Clan. At five, Ken, was asked by his father, who was a rich baritone and base himself, to sing his first sacred song with a piano accompaniment. Throughout his childhood, Ken remembers his mother playing the foot pedal organ to accompany the family of singers on any given evening.
      Ken was born number five in a family of ten children with an older brother and eight sisters to form what he calls the "von Rupe Family Singers." Being of English, Indian and German extraction, he says they entertained in church as well as street singing, going from town to town to help meet the family's financial needs during the forties.
      During high school at Glasgow High Ken had the opportunity to sing in small groups for the junior and senior proms. Post graduation found Ken at Great Lakes, Illinois as a Navy recruit; then on to Norfork and Little Creek, Virginia. As a Navy Journalist, Ken was transferred to the Naval Air Station at Miramar where he soon found the Miramar Chapel and joined the choir. The Choir Director, Jean Stone, also gave voice lessons and took Ken under her wing to help him develop his breathing and to establish a range which he now enjoys as a "irregular regular", as he like to call himself, on the stage at the Charcoal House.
      After being discharged as the Senior Navy Journalist at Miramar, Ken joined the North Shores Sentinel Newspaper group as a photojournalist, reporter and feature writer. He was assigned to write an article and do a photo feature spread on a group in Pacific Beach near the newspaper office on Garnet. The group turned out to the "Rhythm Aire Players," a group of singing and dancing couples and single women (he was 23 at the time) who practiced and held annual shows of a musical review type shows with costumes and choreography. Ken stayed with the group for one season doing several performances at Hornblend Hall. The show was a labor of love for the performers and the director, Robert Brisbane and his family. The members and families helping to make costumes and props for the productions.
      Ken ultimately found the San Diego's piano bar scene and enjoyed singing solos, as well as with groups which further developed his singing style. He especially liked show tunes, big band sounds and even jazz. But his first love was the blue grass and country music he heard as a young man growing up in south central Kentucky on the Grand Old Opry out of WSN Radio in Nashville, Tennessee, only 85 miles from his hometown of Glasgow.
      Ken met his former wife, Mona, at an art class she taught in January of l973; five days later were married in Las Vegas. He admits they didn't waste any time, but the marriage did last ten years and Ken brags about his two daughters, Mona and Kendra. (Guess who she was named after?) When he met his ex, Ken was affiliated with Walters and Company Advertising in La Jolla and handled a number of radio and television accounts including doing voice commercials and on screen television commercials for a Volkswagon dealership.
      In l976, Ken left the advertising business, obtained his California Real Estate license and joined a small firm in Greater Jamul, where he is now broker and owner of Country Properties, a successful backcountry real estate firm specializing in ranches, homes and acreage in East San Diego County.
      Now a days Ken can be seen driving around in his Grand Cherokee complete with a license plate which states "MR JAMUL". In addition Ken has been developing his 12.5 acre spread in Jamul's Lyons Valley. This property features a two story brick Georgian mansion, a small lake, pastures and a private stable of horses, two of which he has raised from his prized mare, Twilight, a registered palomino three-quarter Arabian. Ken says he rides every horse on on his ranch English, Western and bareback. Once while on a trail ride with Daughter Kendra, he heard her singing along to Toby Keith's "I Should Have Been a Cowboy." He has now introduced her to the Charcoal House and his karaoke singing and she has become an avid fan!
      Ken remembers his first time on Woo's stage at the Charcoal House. It was in November of l993, when he escorted a redheaded lady friend and some others to a front row table left of the stage. After some liquid courage, Ken got up and sang his first karaoke somg -- a "goodbye" song to this lady friend entitled "Last Thing on My Mind" from Neil Diamond's inventory. Needless to say, Ken become hooked on karaoke!
      Today Ken enjoys the upbeat country songs as well as the ballads. He has been known to do Tom Jones "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" or even Robert Goulet's Man of LaMancha ("Impossible Dream"). He also likes to try new songs on week nights and to let Hostess Gerrie Woo select from several of songs to keep the rhythm and tempo of a Friday or Saturday night going. He can be heard belting out "Trashy Women" by Confederate Railroad or a little bit of Wade Hayes' "On a Good Night." For the early dinner crowd, Ken likes to sing a cover of a Freddie Fender tune by Sammy Kershaw, "Third Rate Romance". But after dinner you're likely to hear Ken request Woo to "Crank It!" before mounting the stage and taking the mike just as the song begins. "I know the songs most of the time," Ken says, "and I let the music be my cue rather than standing on stage waiting."
      For a total change of pace Ken will try some numbers that are unusual for him, such as Stevie Wonder's "Superstition". Ken says he enjoys listen to the original singer on his eight speaker CD in his Grand Cherokee and sings along to learn the songs in the style of the original artist. Recently Ken has introduced Hank Williams, Jr., into his repertoire complete with hat and sunglasses, doing "Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound," and Women I've Never Had." They're both good closing time songs, he laughingly says.
      When asked his age, Ken just says "older than dirt but singing keeps me young". You can catch him on regular and "irregular" nights at the Charcoal House, where he has stockpiled over 25 Country and Western CDG Karaoke disc along with a few non-country songs. He likes searching for oldies and occasional new releases that haven't even been put on CDG. Ken freely admits he likes to get up and "give it to them" with or without the microphone. His voice carries to such a degree that we always know when Ken'r is about -- Just listen for his familiar greeting, "Oh baby!" and you'll know that Ken Rupe is in the House!