Elvis Week 2020 schedule announced
How much would you pay to hear some of Elvis Presley’s most talented musical collaborators share their memories of Elvis with you and some other folks in the Jungle Room at Graceland?
Would you pay $750?
That’s a question Elvis fans now have to ask themselves, because the schedule for “Elvis Week 2020” is here.
Set to run Aug. 8-16, this year’s Elvis Week will pay special tribute to the 50th anniversary of Elvis’ historic recording sessions in RCA’S famed Studio B in Nashville.
The highlight of the anniversary tribute likely will be the concert set for Aug. 14 on the Graceland Soundstage, which reunites guitarist James Burton, bassist Norbert Putnam and pianist David Briggs, the now revered musicians who played on the so-called “marathon” Presley sessions that ran June 4-8 in Studio B.
Elvis’ first major recording workout since the 1969 Memphis sessions at Chips Moman’s American Studios that produced such hits as “Kentucky Rain” and “Suspicious Minds,” the five days in Nashville produced the classic “Elvis Country” album and such cuts as “It’s Your Baby, You Rock It,” the rocking “Patch It Up,” Elvis’ cover of “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and one of the singer’s more genius cuts of the era, “The Fool.”
Joined by drummer Ronnie Tutt, Burton, Putnam and Briggs also will take part in panels and other events, including a limited-availability $750per-ticket “Jungle Room Experience” at Graceland, where the musicians will discuss their days with Elvis and pose for pictures with fans in the Jungle Room.
Other live performances include a “Next Generation” concert featuring young Elvis tribute artists, a “supergroup” concert uniting past Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist winners, gospel and “unplugged” shows, and “A Tribute to Sun Records” featuring singer-songwriter-guitarist John Paul Keith.
Set for Aug. 13, this year’s “Conversations with Elvis” event is a good one: The guests include Mother Dolores Hart, who made her movie debut alongside Elvis in “Loving You” in 1957, but renounced Hollywood in the 1960s to become a Roman Catholic Benedictine nun.
Tickets for Elvis Week events go on sale March 6 to the general public. For the full schedule of events, visit graceland.com.