SeattleSusieQ: Scotty Moore - Last Man Standing

What can I say about this concert? It was happy, sad and exhilarating – all at the same time.

I saw the second-to-the-last ever performance of Scotty Moore (the last being the 5:00 show after this 2:00 show).

Scotty came out with Darwin at the beginning and answered a couple of questions. As Darwin noted, Scotty was as verbose as we’ve ever seen him. I didn’t take notes but one story that stood out to me - he talked about what it was like to meet Elvis and listen to him for the first time. The most impressive thing to Scotty was that even though Elvis didn’t know the chords to all the songs he was singing (at his “audition”), he would stop playing the guitar when he knew he didn’t know the chords, keep singing, and then jump right back in when he did know the chords, without missing a beat. The fact that Elvis knew the lyrics to so many songs also impressed Scotty.

During the interview I observed that Scotty had the biggest grin on his face I have EVER seen.

This was a tribute to Scotty, but it was also a tribute to Boots Randolf who just passed away. In fact, Gail Pollack came out to tell us of the CD that they had just finished recording 3 weeks before he died. Understandably, she was all torn up about it. But if you can find one of the 1000 copies that are signed by all the musicians (except Boots, of course) GO GET IT! It’s called “The Mighty Handful”.

The tribute opened with the band Scotty has toured with in Europe- the Grundy-Pritchard Band. (I apologize, my pics of them were just too fuzzy to post). I can sure see why Scotty likes to work with them. These guys are GREAT! Paul Ansell was amazing on vocals. They played mostly Elvis songs and we enjoyed several of their own creations. If you’re in Europe, go see them. I asked about seeing them here in the States and was told that was unlikely. Too bad.

Next up was “The Mighty Handful”. The place rocked. The Jordanaires came out and sang a set with Billy and the gang. When Billy Swan introduced the Nashville sessions sax player who was “replacing” Boots, his voice cracked. It was so, so sad. Of course he did NOT play “Yakity Sax”, but he did play a wonderful solo tribute to Boots. Beautiful. When they played a song that had featured Boots at the Legends concert they “simulcasted” the video of Boots playing at that show. The music we were hearing was live, but you got to see Boots playing on film. I hope they release the Legends concert on DVD someday. Perhaps 2 concerts on one DVD – that one and this one. Darwin, can you hear me? :-)