Local kickboxing car salesman has a country side

CHESAPEAKE

Dave Cynar dresses up well in a business suit befitting the car salesman he has been since 1995.

But it's no secret the Deep Creek resident prefers the comfort of jeans and a cowboy hat while holding a guitar and microphone in front of thousands of country music lovers.

"I live for the live performance," Cynar, 39, said from his office at Cavalier Ford at Chesapeake Square. "I love being on stage in front of a lot of people."

That's a feeling he knows often. Cynar graduated from karaoke singing at local joints to opening for big-time acts, including Lee Brice, Josh Turner and Eric Church. Cynar and his band will open for Randy Houser at the NorVa tonight.

He has performed in Nashville and finished third nationally in the "Sing It Like Jake" online talent contest. Cynar submitted his video-taped rendition of Jake Owen's "Eight Second Ride," and fans voted online Oct. 11-31.

"Anything Dave puts his mind into, he puts his whole heart into," said his mother, Ruth Newton, also a musician.

Years ago, his heart was into kickboxing, pretty good for a kid who was hit by a car while bike riding at age 15 at Norfolk's Bromley Shopping Center. He was told he had a 50-50 shot of ever walking again.

Instead, he overcame the pins in his leg and a year in a wheelchair. The karate studio became his refuge. A North American WKKO kickboxing champion, he has a record of 16-0 with eight knockouts.

"I got hooked," he said. "I liked being the man."

Cynar, 39, still enjoys martial arts and holds a second-degree black belt, but music has replaced fighting as his passion.

It started with karaoke and what he calls "facing his fear." He performed George Strait's "Carrying Your Love with Me" one night in Chesapeake, and soon became a regular. He entered a few contests but found real confidence after becoming the 2009 winner of the Colgate Country Showdown, a nationwide talent competition. That inspired him to form his own band.

"Country singer looking for a band," read the initial ad.

When the calls came in, the oft-asked question was, "How many gigs have you done?"

Cynar laughed just thinking about it. "None! But I won some singing contests...."

Eventually he found a group that jelled. His first show was a memorable one.

"It was a little horse show," he said. "We all made like $35 apiece. It was 40 degrees outside and it snowed the day before. We were outside on a trailer."

The gigs got better, and Cynar, who also plays acoustic guitar, improved as a showman. His core group has an electric guitarist, a bass player and a drummer, but at times he will add a fiddle player and a pedal steel guitar.

He has been in the recording studio. His disc has three songs he wrote: "Empty," "So Beautiful" and "What Do You Say to That." The songs are available on iTunes.

"I basically sold my pickup truck so I could finance it," he said. "I went in the studio and produced the songs myself."

He has tried Nashville, but thinks he has a better shot here of landing that one big break that could make this his career.

"Here I'm able to open for some big national acts," he said. "If I was there, I wouldn't get that chance because I'm not signed. I have a pretty decent following here, so we bring a good amount of people with us."

Lynda Pritchard is one of Cynar's diehard fans. She dubs herself his No. 1 groupie and has a fan page for him with thousands of photos.

"My goal in life is for him to make it," she said good-naturedly. "He does a bang-up job as far as high-energy country. That's what he is. High-energy country."

Vicki Friedman, (757) 222-5218, vicki.friedman@pilotonline.com