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Tupelo Fairgrounds
"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 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's 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. On June 4, 2004 they will return once again, this time with Ronnie McDowell and The Jordanaires
*excerpt from the book "Elvis Presley: A Life In Music" by Ernst Jorgensen
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