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THE VELVET ELVIS
The Velvet Elvis '08 Comeback Special, featuring Scotty Baxendale on lead guitar - who has built guitars for James Burton, Carl Perkins, Johnny Depp, and many others - Mike "Mad Dog" Minnick on the drums, and Ian Gilchrist on the bass. Celebrate the 40th anniversary of legendary Elvis '68 Comeback Special with a premiere tribute artist, The Velvet Elvis! He has the vocal chops (and the mutton chops) to impress any die-hard Elvis fan!
The Velvet Elvis is a premier early rock and roll tribute artist. Velvet performs King, Cash, Perkins, Holly, Williams I, Feathers, Lee Lewis, Berry and other early rockabilly legends accompanied with standup bassist and music director, Michael Baird, former bassist for Willie Lewis (founder of Rock-a-Billy Records).
The Velvet E (Chris Barber) was born in '68 (same year as the Comeback Special and the Live at Folsom Prison album), said his first words, "pretty lights", looking at the San Francisco Bay, and can rock it in a trim-karate Vegas era jumpsuit if the need arises. He also writes his own rock-a-billy standards, recording and delivering them in jacked up Memphis style.
His great, great, great grandfather, Charles Wesley Hubbard, was the first white settler of Las Vegas. His great grandma, Hortense Evans Nelson, sang for FDR at the dedication of the Hoover Dam. His mom, Phyllis Barber, was a Las Vegas Rhythmette, was recently inducted into the Nevada Writer's Hall of Fame for a Las Vegas memoir, "How I Got Cultured" and a collection of short stories with Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe and others. And now The Velvet E sings as one fan called it, "Elvis doing Cash better than anyone!" Norm Clarke (Las Vegas Review Journal) said, "not only sounds like The King but couldn't resemble him more...and I'd give [him] two thumbs up!" He is also an ordained minister who can perform your wedding, and the music after the service.
I've seen Elvis.
Dave Flomberg, Rocky Mountain New January 12, 2007
I've seen Elvis in myriad forms and faces, in taped recordings and on the T-shirts of old women wearing costume jewelry and too much makeup in Memphis. I've seen Elvis on products as diverse as lunchboxes, board games, religious iconography and dinner plates.
I've seen Indian Elvis, black Elvis, Chinese Elvis, old Elvis, baby Elvis, fat Elvis, thin Elvis, jumpsuit Elvis, '68 Comeback Elvis, rockabilly Elvis and even Elvis Costello.
I've spent my fair share of time in Las Vegas, land of 10,000 Elvises. And I've borne witness to Val Kilmer's Elvis, Harvey Keitel's Elvis, Don Johnson's Elvis and Kurt Russell's Elvis on screen.
And on Jan. 8 I saw the Velvet Elvis, Chris Barber, who is, hands down, the best Elvis I've seen (save for that Costello guy) live.
Certainly, the stage was perfect for it. It was the King's birthday - he would have been 72 (or is 72, depending on which tabloid you read) - and Barber was at Lannie's Clocktower Cabaret.
Through a medley of rockabilly Elvis-era tunes and Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Hank Williams covers, Barber and bassist Michael Baird put together an educational, high-energy romp through the face of early-'50s rock, sprinkled with snippets of sparkling reverie and punctuated with chunks of cabaret-appropriate comedy. As Mrs. Buzz put it: "I haven't had this much fun in months." And we do have lots of fun.
Best Elvis Impersonator- Chris Barber
Published: Thursday, March 24, 2005 Although calling Jonny Barber a renaissance man may not be fair to Leonardo da Vinci, there's no question that he's got plenty on his plate. He leads Spiv, an enjoyable power-pop band, oversees Pop Sweatshop, a label whose catalogue brims with interesting acts, and, in his free time, channels Elvis Presley. Inspired by a pilgrimage to Graceland last fall, Barber has the hair and the chops, if not the waistline, to bring the King back to life -- figuratively speaking, that is.