Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, Tupelo Fairgrounds September
26, 1956
color photos© courtesy Jimmy Velvet
"At the end of September, in the wake of his
first Sullivan appearance, Elvis retuned to Tupelo for a riotous
homecoming concert. Despite their inferior audio quality, the
surviving tapes of those two shows reflect the pandemonium that had set
in by the end of 1956 at Elvis shows across the country. The crowd
let out one long wail from start to finish, screaming and cheering so
loudly that no one--including the band--could hear a thing. All
Scotty and the boys could do was keep an eye on the singer from behind:
'We were the only band,' he recalls,
'directed by an ass."*
On June 6 of 2003 Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana returned
once again to
the Tupelo Fairgrounds with Sonny Burgess and the Pacers as part of the
6th Annual Elvis Presley Festival in Tupelo, MS. The old stage is
torn down but there was a new one up just waiting for these guys to tear
it up. As Scotty has said "We plan to rock that town!
Believe me, as long as Sonny lives, rockabilly is not dead!"
Scotty and DJ have been doing this show for several
years and there is always a good crowd there. Originally held the
first week in August, they now hold it in June because it was just too
hot to do outside. Some of it may be in the evening this year.
It's one of the few shows Scotty plays without his coat and tie.
admission ticket to fairgrounds, unknown year
www.tupeloelvisfestival.com
*excerpt from the book "Elvis
Presley: A Life In Music" by Ernst Jorgensen
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