ST. CLOUD -- After being rained out of his show at Summertime by George in August, Chris Hawkey is bringing his high-energy brand of northern rock to the Paramount Theatre on Wednesday night.

Hawkey says he was disappointed the show at Lake George was canceled, but says he's happy to be coming back to perform in St. Cloud.

"[Summertime by George] is one of the biggest shows of the year for us, with the amount of people and the atmosphere out there," Hawkey says. "It's something we look forward to every year so that was a drag, [but] I'm really grateful we got something put together at the Paramount."

Although categorized as a country rock band, Hawkey says the music they play is closer to that of artists like Bob Seger and John Mellencamp.

There were a lot of shows [I played] in front of five or six people in bars so smokey that you couldn't see to the back of the place. Now, when I get to jump around on these big stages, it literally is a dream come true. For those moments that I'm on stage, I am the person I always wanted to be.[/pullquotes]

"We're just barely country -- we call what we do 'northern rock'," Hawkey says. "We slide into the country sound sometimes and we slide into rock sound from time to time -- we just kind of have our own groove and we put on a high-energy show."

"Our goal is to make everybody feel good when they leave, it's a fun and enjoyable show."

The 44-year-old Hawkey says his music really breaks down the idea of being an underdog and never giving up.

"I didn't really experience any legitimate success in music until I was about 38 years old -- that's a lot of time reaching out and trying to capture this dream, " Hawkey says.

"It just keeps getting better and one thing you'll know for sure when you look up on stage is you're seeing a guy living his dream."

Doors open at 5:00 p.m. and the show starts at 6:00 p.m. with The Lamont Cranston Band taking the stage before Chris Hawkey goes on at 7:30 p.m. with tickets starting at $10.

If you can't make it to Wednesday's show, Chris Hawkey will be back in St. Cloud for a New Year's Day show at Pioneer Place.

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