www.elvis.com |
Elvis & The TCB Band, Part 2 - 2
When Elvis returned to live performing in 1969, leaving his Hollywood
movie career behind, he recruited players for his new band.
They were: James Burton (lead guitar), Larry Muhoberac (piano), Jerry
Scheff (bass), Ronnie Tutt (drums), and John Wilkinson (rhythm guitar).
Various other gentlemen players came and went from the band over the
years until Elvis' final concert in 1977.
We profiled several of them in last week's Elvis Fact of the Week.
Following are the rest of our brief bios:
Larry Muhoberac grew up in Louisiana and began playing accordion and
piano at age 5. He toured Europe with the Woody Herman band at age of
20. He moved to Memphis in 1959. Formerly known as Larry Owens, he and
his band performed at Elvis' two Memphis-area charity concerts in 1961.
He became a session player in California and worked on several
soundtrack recording sessions with Elvis, including "Frankie & Johnny",
"Paradise Hawaiian Style" and "Speedway". He played the first Elvis
engagement at the International Hotel in 1969. He went on to play for
such artists as Neil Diamond, Al Martino, Tina Turner and Ray Charles
among others. In 1986, he emigrated to Australia, where music still
keeps him very busy today.
Glenn D Hardin replaced Larry Muhoberac on piano. Glen D. is from Texas
and began playing piano at age 8. He hadn't thought about playing
professionally until he got a job a nightclub in San Diego, California
while he was in the U.S. Navy. After leaving the Navy he moved to Los
Angeles and started doing session work. He has worked with artists such
as Buddy Holly's former group The Crickets, Emmylou Harris, Ricky
Nelson, Travis Tritt, Roy Orbison and John Denver among many others. He
played piano in Elvis' concerts from 1970 to early 1976.
Shane Keister played piano for eight shows in early 1976 until Tony
Brown was hired to replace Glenn D. Hardin. Tony Brown is the son of a
preacher and secular music was discouraged in his youth. Gospel music
was his early inspiration. He played and toured with The Oak Ridge boys.
After working with Elvis he began working in Nashville in the recording
business. Today, he's an influential record producer and recording
industry executive.
David Briggs played keyboards for Elvis's shows from 1976 until the end
of February 1977. His work with Elvis dates back to 1966, when he was
called in to substitute for pianist Floyd Cramer, who was late for one
of the recording sessions for the "How Great Thou Art" album. Briggs
played piano in Cramer's place for the song "Love Letters", one of the
non-gospel songs recorded in those same sessions. Cramer then arrived to
take over on piano, but Elvis liked Briggs and kept him on for the rest
of those sessions to play organ. He continued to record with Elvis
through to his last recording session in 1976. David is from Alabama and
the famous music of the Muscle Shoals area. His first recording session
was at age 14. He has recorded with artists such as Loretta Lynn, Reba
McEntire, Kenny Rogers, Mark Chestnut, Barbara Mandrell and many others.
He has also worked in Nashville as a songwriter, a producer and a music
director for television specials.
Throughout the 1970's, these musicians toured and played with Elvis
Presley in over 1,000 shows across the United States. Many of them still
look back over that experience with fondness and pride. In 1997, on the
20th anniversary of Elvis' death, a concert was held in Memphis
reuniting many of these musicians and many of the vocalists who had
worked with Elvis as part of his concert tours. The 1997concert starred
the real Elvis Presley, via video with all sound removed from the
footage but his voice, with his former colleagues performing live on
stage. This big production served as the prototype for a smaller
road-show size production, Elvis-The Concert, which has been touring
around the world since 1998. Another major reunion production was held
in Memphis on the 25th anniversary in 2002. The road show, Elvis-The
Concert, just finished its fourth tour of Europe last week. The show has
received tremendous acclaim and in 1998 was designated a Guinness World
Record as "the first live tour headlined by a performer who is no longer
living."
On his web site, bassist Jerry Scheff wrote about his experience with
the 1997 reunion concert: "There were times I forgot that his physical
body was not with us. At the end of the show, when we were all lined up
on stage, and you, the audience, were all on your feet, I was looking at
your faces, and I thought I could see the same emotions going through
you that I was feeling. They were mixed feelings of elation, sadness,
and a sense that we had experienced something entirely different than we
had experienced before. Then again, it all had to do with Elvis. What
did we expect?" |
