It’s been 32 years since our Elvis finally “left the building”, but the King continues to rock the world even now.  To all of us who love him, Elvis will never die!  His music and his songs, his vibrancy and his charm, his humor and his charisma – all the qualities that made him the “Greatest Entertainer of All Time” – will be with us forever.
      The Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. continues to carry on the legacy of the King, with the dazzling tributes to Elvis presented every year by the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist competitions around the world.   
       Two years ago, the Ultimate ETA Competition was inaugurated to search for the “best representation of the legacy of Elvis Presley.”  In response to the excitement generated by the 2007 contest, EPE brought the contest back last year.  And this is the third year of this incredible event which draws thousands of fans from all over.
      This year 17 preliminary contests are being held worldwide, and that means 17 winners will compete for the title of “2009 Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist World Champion” during Elvis Week in Memphis, Tennessee.  
        Who will it be this year? Your guess is as good as mine!  So far, we have the following ETAs scheduled to compete:  BILL CHERRY, JIM BARONE, KEVIN MILLS, LEO DAYS, VICTOR TREVINO, JR., PETE PAQUETTE, and LANCE DOBINSON.
        Another one has just been added to this list – DONNY EDWARDS of Las Vegas, Nevada.  He was selected the winner in the Ultimate Elvis Tribute contest held Friday to Sunday, June 19-21, 2009 at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, California.
       Will it be Donny who will wear the crown this year?  If the third time is a charm, Donny will be it!  Two years ago, he placed third in the International Contest in Memphis, where SHAWN KLUSH was crowned the First Ultimate ETA World Champion, with TRENT CARLINI as runner-up.  Last year, Donny was the runner-up to BRANDON BENNETT, the 2008 Ultimate ETA World Champion.
      At the Pechanga contest, fourteen tribute artists battled it out in three rounds of competitions for two successive days.  The 14 contestants were:  BOBBY DESISTO, ROBERT DIXON, VINNIE PRESLEY, CHRIS LUNA, ELVIS PHAM, JIM WESTOVER, PATRICK BRANNEN, SEVE BOTELLO, PAIGE POOLE, PAUL MONROE, JAMES KRUK, JAMES KING, TRAVIS ALLEN and DONNY.
       After the third round on the second day, five contestants were chosen to compete in the finals:   JAMES KRUK, JAMES KING, TRAVIS ALLEN, DONNY EDWARDS and PAUL MONROE.  This time, instead of playing CDs to accompany the contestants, there was a live band.
      And what a band!  It’s the EAS Band itself – the official Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist back-up band for Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.  Here are the members of the band:  JOHN CRENSHAW, drums; TOMMY MADDEN, guitar; BRIAN HARRIS, piano; RICK CRENSHAW, bass; JASON PARKS, keyboards; CHERYL CRENSHAW and DONETTA CRENSHAW, vocals.
       During the finals, the five contestants sang three songs each.  In order of their performance, here are the songs each contestant sang: JAMES KING – “A Little Less Conversation”, “Are You Lonesome Tonight”, and “If I Can Dream”; TRAVIS ALLEN – “Heartbreak Hotel”, “One Night with You”, and “You’re So Young and Beautiful”; DONNY EDWARDS – “ Trouble”, “Hound Dog”, and “It’s Now or Never”; PAUL MONROE – “You Gave Me a Mountain”, “Suspicious Minds”, and “The Impossible Dream”; and JAMES KRUK – “Burning Love”, “Little Sister”, and “American Trilogy.”
       DONNY EDWARDS emerged as winner, to the delight of the Elvis fans, who accorded him a long standing ovation.  As winner, Donny earned the right to represent Pechanga at the Elvis Week 2009.  He was also awarded $5,000, while TRAVIS ALLEN, the second place winner, $3,000; and JAMES KING, the third place winner, $2,000.
      Just like in the last two years of competitions, this year’s judging criteria, as published in the official Ultimate ETA website, are as follows: Vocals – the ability to match the sound and quality of Elvis’ voice; Appearance – the ability to create a look and style that represents Elvis well; Performance – the ability to perform in a style that Elvis would have performed; Stage Presence – the ability to re-create the charisma Elvis created when performing on stage; and Overall Performance – the quality of the overall performance as a whole.  To summarize: the “best representation of the legacy of the King!”
      The same judging criteria will be used this coming August at the Elvis Week 2009 to select the Top Ten finalists, and the World Champion at the Grand Finals.  I don’t envy the judges at all!  It will really be a tough job selecting the 2009 World Champion from among the best of the best and the cream of the crop!
        After the announcement of winners at Pechanga, KURT BROWN of Brown Productions LLC, who was the producer and emcee of the event, posed this question to the cheering crowd:  “Wouldn’t it be great if the World Champion this year will come from this contest?”  This question was answered with thunderous applause!         
      Kurt continued, “How would you like it if he will be invited back here at Pechanga to do a concert for you after he becomes World Champion?”  “Yes, yes, yes!” shouted the audience, followed by more deafening applause.
      To the hundreds of Elvis fans who thronged the 1,200-seat Pechanga Showroom Theater – Donny is a shoe-in as the next Ultimate ETA World Champion.  After all, his ability as a performer is top-notch!  He looks like Elvis, sings and talks like Elvis, and also has the charisma of the King!
      And if history repeats itself, Brown Productions LLC might again produce this t year’s World Champion as it did last year.  In July 2008 BRANDON BENNETT became the winner at Harrah’s Cherokee Resort & Casino in Cherokee, North Carolina, which was produced by Kurt Brown.  And Brandon went on to become the 2008 World Champion!
      The runner-up in the Pechanga contest, TRAVIS ALLEN, is a local boy, although he moved to Las Vegas a couple of years ago.  As a tribute artist, Travis does the 50’s Elvis – the tender years as in “Love Me Tender.”  He came back to his home turf, hoping that some hometown support will help this local boy make good.  He did make good, as this young performer is also a fantastic entertainer!
        The judges at the Pechanga contest were also local people:  DARRIN GRAMANN, Entertainment Director of the Pechanga Resort & Casino; TIMMY DANIELS, president of the Timmy d. Productions; and JEFF PACK, of the Californian, a newspaper in Riverside County.  At the final night of the competition, Jeff Pack was unavailable, so the third judge was ERNIE MARTINEZ, of the Walrus Radio Station in San Diego.
      As a producer, KURT BROWN has a few equals!  He is one of the best! Every year, he produces five competitions for EPE.  And as an emcee, he is just great!  He has a great sense of humor, well versed in the art of introducing the tribute artists, and has a vast knowledge of Elvis’ trivia.  To fill the time gap while the judges computed their votes, a mini-trivia contest was conducted, to the delight of the audience who received DVD’s and other prizes.
     He is a great singer too!  But maybe not as an Elvis tribute artist!  Sorry, Kurt!  He was Neil Diamond when he sang Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”.  I was amazed and delighted to find out that he has Neil’s voice down pat.  And Neil’s moves too!  The audience loved him, and so did I!  I just wished he sang more of Neil’s top hits.
      During the three rounds of competition for the selection of the top five finalists, we were enthralled by the ETAs and the great variety of songs sang by each.  Songs that we love, like:  “Burning Love”, “Jailhouse Rock”, “How Great Thou Art”, “Just Pretend”, “I Can’t Stop Loving You”, “Blue Suede Shoes”, “Hurt”, “You Gave Me a Mountain”, “My Way”, “That’s Alright Mama”, “Return to Sender”,  “Let’s Play House”, “American Trilogy”, “Medley”, “Suspicious Minds”, “Hound Dog”, “In the Ghetto”, “Let it Be Me”, “Kentucky Rain”, “You Lost that Loving Feeling”, “The Impossible Dream”, “Viva Las Vegas”, “The Wonder of You”, “Unchained Melody”, “Trouble”, “Steam Roller Blues”, and “Walk a Mile in My Shoes.”
        Elvis Tribute Artists, no matter how great they are, are nothing without the Elvis fans.  It’s the Elvis fans who make them great!  The fans of Elvis will follow him to the ends of the earth.  They will trek and fly anywhere to be with the King once again, and to bring back the way it was before Elvis finally “left the building.”
      Among the hundreds of fans who attended, I managed to jot down a few, and here they are: DEBBY FLANNERY, RICK LINDERHOLDM, TINA ALTMAN, DENNIS CELLS, DARLENE CELLS, STEWARD SANDEMAN, VITA ELISKAILINF, JOAN KABU, BECKY BOND, DOROTEA CROSS, MICKEY SABIN, ALLEN SABIN, CAROL IKAMI, LESSA IKAMI, BETTY ALTMAN, HEIDI HEROLD, SYLVIA RONQUILLO, JESSE NAVA, KATHY GARRISON and especially the officers and members of the JAILHOUSE ROCKERS OF CALIFORNIA, an Elvis fan club.
        There was a friend of Elvis in the audience who is in the Country Music’s Celebrity Hall of Fame.  Her name is WENDY LYNN ADAMS, and she was “Nurse Peabody” in “Hee-Haw.”  When she was asked by Kurt to stand up and speak a little bit, she said that she used to be Elvis’ prayer partner.
      “Elvis’ secret desire was to be a man of the cloth,” she said, “and he loved to sing the gospel so much.  One time in Graceland, Elvis asked J.D. SUMMERS to sing “Sweet, Sweet Spirit”, one of Elvis’ favorite gospel songs.  J.D. said he couldn’t because he had a sore throat.  Elvis laid his hand on J.D., the way ministers do, and prayed over him.  And J.D. was miraculously cured and was able to sing so beautifully with that very distinctive voice of his.”
       During the 3-day contest, the members of the media were provided with Press Passes.  My thanks to ROBERT BLEDSOE, public relations manager of the Pechanga Resort & Casino, for providing myself and my photographers, NARRIE B. (for the First and Final nights of the competition) and KRIS B. (for the Second night), with press passes!  He also provided us a Press Kit.
     He informed us that the Pechanga Resort & Casino, nestled in Temecula’s picturesque Southern California Wine Country, is California’s biggest and best resort and casino.  It offers the ultimate destination setting and is the winner of AAA’s Four Diamond award six years in a row.  It has an immense 188,000 square-foot casino floor which features more than 3,700 slots and 139 table games, bigger than even the MGM Grand of Las Vegas.
      It was the perfect location for the Ultimate ETA contest, being one of Southern California’s premier entertainment venues.  The first two nights of the competition was held at the Cabaret Lounge, which provided a comfortable, yet energized atmosphere.  The no-cover Cabaret Lounge makes it a popular gathering spot – and on the two nights of the contest, so much Elvis fans attended that scores of extra chairs were brought in to accommodate everybody.  Even then, some Elvis fans were still standing up just outside to catch a glimpse of the contest.
      The Pechanga Showroom Theater was able to accommodate everybody!  At this theater, internationally recognized performers regularly take the stage: BOB DYLAN, ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK, KELLY CLARKSON and JULIO IGLESIAS, to name a few.  World-famous comedians including JERRY SEINFELD, RAY ROMANO and BILL COSBY have left guests in stitches.  And thousands have become enthralled in Broadway musicals, such as “Cats”, “Aida” and “Grease.”
    Temecula is the perfect central point of Southern California, located about an hour’s drive from downtown San Diego, Orange County and Los Angeles.  It was an hour and a half drive from my home in San Diego.  Just 20 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, the area offers a Mediterranean climate perfect for vineyards as well as enjoying the outdoors.
      It was a fun 3-day weekend for everyone, ETAs and Elvis fans alike!
                                                                      XXX

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