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Legends Show Rehearsal
On August 13th Elvis International…The Magazine presented two shows in conjunction with Elvis Week 2004 and the 50th Anniversary celebrations in Memphis. First "The Legends" show would go on at 6:30 PM at the Cannon Center followed by the TCB Band at 10:00. The last time they put on these shows was in 2002 on separate nights at the Peabody Hotel in conjunction with the 25th Anniversary of Elvis' death.
The Legends show featured Scotty on guitar, D.J. Fontana on drums, Bob Moore on bass, Millie Kirkham and the Jordanaires on vocals with guest performances by Boots Randolph, Ronnie McDowell, Billy Swan, Lee Rocker, Stan Perkins and Eddie Miles. The show was produced by Darwin Lamm and M.C.'d by Red Robinson.
The plan was to have load in at 9:00AM at the Center followed by a setup and sound check. The TCB band would then setup in and around the Legends' set and perform their sound check. Along with Scotty, DJ and Bob, Ronnie McDowell's band which consisted of Steve Shepherd* on keyboards, Kevin Woods and Frank Michaels on guitar, Wade Bernard on baritone guitar and Ronnie Dean on 2nd drums, served as the core and host band for the show.
Load in had taken longer than anticipated and it was awhile before the proper people could be located to turn the power on to enable a sound check and rehearsal. The staff at the Cannon center were very professional extremely helpful in helping to coordinate all the efforts. By lunch time Marian Cox, one of Elvis' former nurses and a regular at the Elvis related events came by with much appreciated sandwiches, snacks and drinks.
Steve, as always, as road manager was instrumental in getting things setup, microphones placed and overall cueing of the band. After some milling around, around early afternoon Scotty called for Darwin to have the stage cleared of folks not particularly involved with certain segments of the performance and to bring out each participant as scheduled to rehearse their part. Time was starting to run out.
Each of the performers went through their set as planned with no glitches. Lee Rocker used a bass and amp borrowed from "The Dempseys", a Memphis area Rock-a-billy band while Kevin Woods on guitar in addition to his own amp utilized one of the Twin Reverb amps rented for James Burton of the TCB band. D.J. and Ronnie Tutt shared the same drum set.
Scotty played on all of the numbers except for the set featuring Eddie Miles. Eddie is one of the leading Elvis Tribute Artists (ETA) and generally performs songs of the '70s era of Elvis' career and in fact performed his own regular show there at the Cannon Center the following night. Eddie performed several songs backed by Millie and the Jordanaires.
Being both members of Nashvilles "A Team", Boots Randolph and Bob Moore go way back together to the days of recording at RCA Studio B in Nashville. Boots was featured on many of the songs of the evening and was the only one to perform at both the Legends Show and then again later on at the TCB show.
For the ending, all of the performers would then again take the stage for the finale. The even arranged for Darwin, much to the amusement of the crowd, to sing a few lyricks.
By the time the rehearsal finished it was late in the afternoon. It ran longer than planned so it was decided that the TCB band would not setup until after the Legends show completed and they down their stage. Being a smaller band that plays regularly together they anticipated no problems with that. There was just enough time now go rest up a little, eat and come back for the show.
Click here to view the page with pictures from the Show. October 3, 2004 *Steve Shepherd has since left Ronnie's band and is currently performing and touring as the keyboardist with up and coming country artist John Wesley Stone. Most recently they've been opening dates with Gretchen Wilson. Thanks Steve and we wish you much success.
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| All photos on this site (that we didn't borrow) unless otherwise indicated are the property of either Scotty Moore or James V. Roy and unauthorized use or reproduction is prohibited. |
