Beech Tree News Network

Saturday night April 8, I attended Rockabilly Revival: a tribute to the legends of Sun Records.  The show had performances from Elvis(played by Cody Slaughter), Johnny Cash(played by Shawn Barker), Carl Perkins(played by Travis Daggett) and Jerry Lee Lewis(played by Lance Lipinsky).  Lipinsky’s portrayal of Jerry Lee stole the show! Anyone in the audience that night at SKYPAC or anywhere else this crew performed this show will tell you the same. 

These tribute artists aren’t just good; they’re considered the best.  We would find that out just minutes into the show.  Shawn Barker becomes Johnny Cash.  Fluke Holland, Johnny’s drummer for 40 years, said: “Shawn looks and sounds like John…it’s amazing”.  It certainly was amazing. Lance Lipinski has played Jerry Lee Lewis all over the world in the Million Dollar Quartet.  He really brings that “Killer” prescience to the stage.  Everything from his mannerisms, the way he sounds, all the way to his boisterous stage persona, this guy had Jerry Lee down!

Travis Daggett brought Carl Perkins’ sound to life.  Cody Ray Slaughter as Elvis was spectacular.  These four legendary artists were the Fab Four long before the Beatles. Darcy Wood was the great female talent of the show: background vocals as well as several duets, including “Jackson” with Barker’s Johnny Cash.  There were so many things that will stick with me from this two and a half hour performance.  These guys were amazing.  I also liked the tribute they did to Chuck Berry.  This was at the end of the show, they all came to the stage and sang “Johnny B. Goode”.  They closed the show digging into the foursome’s gospel roots with “Will The Circle Be Unbroken”. 
By the way, after seeing this concert, I pulled Jerry Lee Lewis Essentials, Jerry Lee’s Greatest and Sun Records: The Definitive Hits down to my library.  As soon as I finish writing this, I’ll make a Sun Records playlist with all those great artists included.  Seeing a great concert like this has a two-prong effect: you get to hear great music, and you’ll likely get the music for your own library when you get home.