Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, July 16, 2009

Marc Cruise (or Bill Welling as Ringgold county folk know him) will be bringing a couple of concerts to the Princess Theater over the Ayr Days weekend as part of an effort to raise money for the Princess Theater Endowment and I visited with him while he was in town for the Ringgold County Fair, sharing some of his music
as part of the musical acts following the queen and
princess contest.

Cruise is a 1991 graduate of Mount Ayr Community high school and will be bringing a show that includes singer Angie Creighton for performances at 9:30 p.m. Friday, July 24, and 6 p.m. Sunday, July 26.

The show will feature old time country, more modern country, some 1980s rock and some of the original songs Cruise has written for a new CD he is developing.

"It'll be a blend of everything in a show that I think people in the area will really like," Cruise said.

Back when Cruise was Bill Welling, he spent a school year working for the Mount Ayr Record-News in the afternoon work program of the school district.

When asked if those afternoons were the key to his success now, he laughed.

"I wouldn't have dreamed back then that I would be making my living as a singer, but through a lot of hard work and perserverance I've been able to do just that," Cruise said.

Several years ago after college he traveled with a country band called Midnight Highway that opened for several big country acts around the United States.

He grew tired of the road and started his own entertainment company in Des Moines. With Primetime entertainment he does concert bookings, promotions, artist management and DJ services. His company is a registered member of the Country Music Association.

His "Rockin' Tribute to Country" show, which he brought to an Ayr Days several years ago, traveled around with as many as 152 dates in one year, but he has cut back on that kind of schedule recently because he is working on doing a lot of music writing to develop a solo CD. He has also been working on re-developing the tribute show, which has more options with the addition of Angie CREIGHTON, he said.

Songs he has written and performed have been getting country music station airplay around the country with some 27 radio stations in the south and on the coasts.

"We have several of the songs recorded and I'm spending more time in the studio working on more tracks," he said.

Cruise said he writes songs that speak to things he has experienced and felt.

A song that is becoming a favorite of fans in the Ringgold county area is "It Can't Rain Every Day," a song he wrote quickly after hearing of the death of Mount Ayr Community high school classmate Tadd Bainum.

"I sort of wrote the song as the situation would be seen through April's eyes (Tadd's wife)," he said. He posted a video of him singing the song on YouTube and it has proved to be one of the most popular of the songs he has on YouTube.

Another of his new songs is "Last Man Standing," a song about a relationship between friends when some of them has a messy break up.

Some of the songs from old time country singers like George Jones that he sings now were ones he was introduced to on records that his grandmother, Levetta Welling, played at home when he was growing up.

Welling has a crew which includes sound man Jerry Smith, who helps pick out the music for the shows, tour manager Tim Wolfe, who helps manage the concerts, drives the bus, can play all kinds of instruments and does the introductions for the show.

As Cruise has been working on rebuilding his act, he has added Angie Creighton to the show. Creighton sings some of her own songs and joins Cruise for some duets as well.

Creighton has made it through some of the preliminary rounds of American Idol in the past and will be heading to Denver, CO, soon to try again to make it on the popular show.

As well as the Princess Theater show, Cruise is working toward a visit to the Iowa State Fair on August 23 at 3:15 p.m. along with other concerts in Iowa.

He is also working with a friend from Nashville, TN, with the Songs For A Cure program to help people with cancer. He hopes to lend a song to an album being put together and some of the proceeds from the autographed pictures he and Creighton sell and performances to help this cause as well.

"I really enjoy performing," Cruise said, "but it takes a crew of support and people who will buy tickets for the shows to make it all possible."

He hopes coming home will help the theater too.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, December of 2012