Country music singer and Elvis Presley sound-alike Ronnie McDowell has performed in many countries during his 30-plus years of entertaining, but he never has been to the McDowell ancestral home of Scotland.

That will change when he performs March 22 and 23 at the Caithness Country Music Festival in Halkirk, near the northeastern tip of the nation.

"I didn't want to go to Scotland as I'm not fond of flying, but my two sons, Ronnie Dean and Tyler, wanted to go," Mr. McDowell said in a call.

Ronnie Dean McDowell Jr. serves as his father's tour manager, drummer, backup vocalist and merchandise manager. Tyler has a CD set for release in the spring.

"There are a lot of McDowells over there, and I'm sure that I'm related to some of them," the singer said.. "I love history, and I've traced my line back to 1730 when Ephraim McDowell came over here on a little ship called The Queen and Mary."

Mr. McDowell will perform at 8 p.m. Feb. 1 in the Newberry (S.C.) Opera House with his band, the Rhythm Kings. Tickets are $30. Call (803) 276-6264 or see newberryoperahouse.com.

He has been heard as the singing voice of Presley in several TV specials and movies, including Elvis (starring Kurt Russell), Elvis & Me (based on Priscilla Presley's book), the ABC network TV series Elvis (starring Michael St. Gerard) and the 1997 Showtime special Elvis Meets Nixon .

He also has had many Top 10 country singles, including Older Women (Make Beautiful Lovers), Watchin' Girls Go By, I Dream of Women Like You, Personally, New York Minute, You're Gonna Ruin My Bad Reputation , his remakes of Conway Twitty's It's Only Make Believe and The Righteous Brothers' Unchained Melody and I Love You, I Love You, I Love You .

When I talked with him last week, he was in a Nashville, Tenn., studio working on his 45th album, due out this spring.

"It's called Yesterday, Today ," Mr. McDowell said. "Half of it (is) songs that I've grown up with and that I've written. That's the yesterday part of it. Then the today stuff, naturally, is stuff that sounds like what's going on today. It's a neat concept that I've always wanted to do.

"Me and my guitar player, Lee Bogan -- he's from Union, S.C., and wrote Honky Tonk Attitude for Joe Diffie -- co-wrote a song that's a homage to Conway Twitty called I Want a Love Like That. We think it's an absolute smash.

"I've also got a song on the album that's a homage to Dean Martin called I've Got the World on My Shoulders and a homage to Elvis called Blue Suede Heaven ."

Mr. McDowell continues to do shows with Presley's backup vocalists The Jordanaires and Millie Kirkham and Presley's former drummer D.J. Fontana. You can learn about those dates on his Web site, ronniemcdowell.com, by clicking on the "news & dates" link.

Talking about those appearances led to this question: Would Presley still be in show business if he were still alive (he would have turned 73 on Jan. 8.)?

"I think Elvis might be like Tony Bennett and still be doing shows, but not that many," Mr. McDowell said. "I think 99.9 percent of the big stars today absolutely worshipped Elvis. So I think he would be recording songs with those different artists, and I think he'd still be making movies with cameo appearances.

"I think Elvis would be doing just what he wanted and having a big time."

Don Rhodes has written about country music for 37 years. He can be reached at (706) 823-3214 or at don.rhodes@morris.com.